This pic is the side opposite the names. The top side is shown twice in those photo's, we still don't have the side directly opposite the Christmas Tree.
I'm Guessing he does have Both Sides Posted.
I'm guessing the "Christmas Tree" Is on both sides
Yeah that's a good thought, I double checked and the pictures are both of the same side, so we still need the other side. It seems like the OP has left the building though, so not sure we'll get it.
I may as well throw my guess in. Somebody made a fake James brothers treasure "gold" bar just for fun or to fool someone.
I have to agree with this scenario.
I can TOTALLY see grandpa going to the shed and grabbing an old hunk of lead to make a Jesse & Frank James gold bar for the grandson's to play train robbers. I did a little research (very little) and it seems the biggest heist by the James gang was getting $25,000 cash and $30000 in gold from the Muncie, KS train robbery.
So if I'm a 10 y.o. boy at the turn-of-the-century and grandpa gives me a $30,000 "gold bar", I'm going to do what I think all robbers do with stolen gold - bury it.
It makes me wonder if the remains of $25,000 in home-made play money might have been in the hole where this bar was found.![]()
Why not make it look like an actual gold bar? What would all the fancy wiring on the top have to do with a play bar of gold? Interesting idea, but it’s not like any bar of gold I’ve ever seen.
Because 120 years ago, little kids had good imaginations. A stick was a gun. A broom was a horse. The bushes were wild Indians... Those kids likely had never seen a gold bar, so grandpa said, "Look at this! $30,000! It has Jessie James name right on it!"
Kids today still have imaginations. I do a Civil War presentation for the 4th graders each year. When I first started, the school admin wouldn't let me bring my Enfield rifle onto the elementary school campus, so I used a long walking stick. The kids understood what it represented. Nobody ever said, "That's not a rifle." They got it. And we all marched into the imaginary First Battle of Manassas together...
I think his dad was a member here and may have posted it before gifting it to his son.
I'm Guessing he does have Both Sides Posted.
I'm guessing the "Christmas Tree" Is on both sides
Your start position was: “I need all the information I can get” but getting information from you has been like pulling teeth. There will be questions you can’t answer (the interpretation of the numerals/date for example, which surely we must regard as a critical part of any solution for what it is) but there have been a lot of simple questions which you have ignored or evaded and basic information which you have not volunteered.