Dr. Syn
Sr. Member
Who'da thunk?
Please bear with me, my first real find, and nothing more then dumb luck, and some tips I've gleaned from here.
A bit of history, roughly 20 years ago I purchased my Grand Pa's farm. One of those things done by the heart rather then the brain.
Anyhow it was a heck of an investment, between the lumber/coal/gas (I own the mineral rights) I retired at 50.
Well I had to fly up to PA to meet with a coal company, has some free time afterward to kill, so I took a hike. Ended up at the old neighbors place, he's been dead an easy 10 years. The place was leveled by the coal company, which was stupid if you ask me. The barn was all Chestnut, pinned construction, one of the beams still there is around 40' long and approx 2' x 3' in diameter, just to give you an idea of how old it is. My place has been in the family since the 1700's, and has more history then you can shake a stick at. Between wars, Indians, moonshiners, and even the KKK, there's always been something going on. Heck one of the major cities nearby is named after my family.
Anyhow, other then the debris, they left the house's fireplace and chimney standing at old Lester's place.
Poking around not really looking for anything, and why I don't know, but I started looking at the fireplace. Pretty typical for the area, all field stone and mortar, arched opening with a keystone. Well the keystone caught my eye, probably would have missed it, but the wooden mantle above it was gone, so it kinda stuck out.
And stuck out is a bit of an understatement. The keystone sat slightly proud, compared to the rest of the stones forming the arch. Looking closer I noticed there were two spots in the mortar that were slightly different then the rest. Looking REALLY close I saw that the mortar was dished in at those places, and I could see the rest of the mortar around the keystone, was under the it.
Well doing my best "Indiana Jones" I put a finger in each spot and pulled on the keystone. Holy Crap, the stone moved!!!!!!!!
I decide in for a penny, and pulled the keystone out. Someone, sometime ago was one heck of a mason. The keystone was trimmed to sit inside the opening and had a lip on it to help hide the masonry joints, all from a single piece of field stone.
Finally dawned on me after staring at the craftsmanship of the mason work, I might want to look inside the opening. DUH!
Well I used my lighter to peer inside, wasn't about to blindly stick my hand in some dark dank hole. And there sitting inside as pretty as could be was a Tupperware container? Nope no mason jar, no strong box, no bag, a plain old Tupperware container. And it wasn't even a nice one, looked like it had been used, stained, and stuffed in there. Pulled it out, and it wasn't even Tupperware, it was Rubbermaid.
BUT, it was HEAVY!!!! Popped the top off and at first it looked like old Lester stashed his pocket change in it. I could see nickles, dimes, pennies in there. Then the light glinted off something gold.......................
Now I'm like the squirrel who's found a cache of nuts! Rip off my jacket and toss it on the ground, dump the coins on the jacket and I see LOTS OF GOLD!!!!
Holy Moley, GOLD COINS!!!! And then I started looking at them. Sorry to say they weren't Confederate Gold, more like Sacajawea Gold.
In the pile of coins were as stated, pennies, nickles, dimes, nothing spectacular, a whole slew of Sacajawea dollars, Susan B. Anthony dollars, Kennedy half dollars, and a filthy crumpled up piece of paper. Well I unfold the paper and find it's a pair of Silver Certificate Dollar bills, and inside them is an 1889 Indian Head Penny, encased!
Well now I'm like, oh my God, what do I do now? Looking all around to see if anyone has seen me, (there isn't another house for miles around, LOL!) I replace the keystone back, gather up the cache and make like the wind to get out of there. Huff it back to the rental car, and it hits me. What the heck am I going to do with this stuff? I can't take it on the plane can I? OK, I come up with a plan, stop at a bank and get coin rolls, and the odds and ends go in my pocket. Stuff the rolls in my carry on. Show up at the airport sweating bullets, just waiting to get asked what I'm doing with this stuff. Trying to think up an excuse as I stand in line. I'm up, dump my pockets into the tray with everything else, and decide to play stupid. Bag goes through the X-ray, meanwhile I waiting for the alarms to go off, they have to see I'm sweating and nervous.
Nope, stuff goes right through, no chimes/bells/whistles, no alarms, no guns, no strip search. I grab my bag and reload my pockets, and high tail it to the gate.
Get on the flight, stash my goody bag under the seat till we lift off. From then on it sat in my lap.
Get home and check out my find. First off I find that I left my stinking luggage at the airport.............
Screw it, I'll go back later and get it.
Here's what I did remember to bring home.
57 Sacajawea Dollars
3 Susan B. Dollars
1 Sacajawea that has engraving on the edge
1 James Polk that has same engraving
1 William H. Harrison, Ditto
1 Geo Washington, again ditto.
2 Silver Certificate Dollar bills.
10 Kennedy Halfs, and yep one is a '65 silver.
14 Dimes, misc
22 Nickles, misc
148 Pennies, misc
1 Smashed Quarter?
1 Indian Head Penny, 1889, encased
By my counting that's $78.24, face value.
Not to shabby for me.
Oh and now for the strange part. Some of these coins are dated AFTER old Lester passed on. Not real sure what to make of that. Only thing I can think of, is that Lester ended up in a home, and someone else might have lived in the house afterward for a while, found the the stash and either didn't know the value and just added to it, and forgot about it.............? Got me on that.
Like I said this is my first, so what do I do now? Cart the stuff to a coin shop?
Hope you enjoyed it almost as much as I did,
Brad aka Dr. Syn
Please bear with me, my first real find, and nothing more then dumb luck, and some tips I've gleaned from here.
A bit of history, roughly 20 years ago I purchased my Grand Pa's farm. One of those things done by the heart rather then the brain.
Anyhow it was a heck of an investment, between the lumber/coal/gas (I own the mineral rights) I retired at 50.
Well I had to fly up to PA to meet with a coal company, has some free time afterward to kill, so I took a hike. Ended up at the old neighbors place, he's been dead an easy 10 years. The place was leveled by the coal company, which was stupid if you ask me. The barn was all Chestnut, pinned construction, one of the beams still there is around 40' long and approx 2' x 3' in diameter, just to give you an idea of how old it is. My place has been in the family since the 1700's, and has more history then you can shake a stick at. Between wars, Indians, moonshiners, and even the KKK, there's always been something going on. Heck one of the major cities nearby is named after my family.
Anyhow, other then the debris, they left the house's fireplace and chimney standing at old Lester's place.
Poking around not really looking for anything, and why I don't know, but I started looking at the fireplace. Pretty typical for the area, all field stone and mortar, arched opening with a keystone. Well the keystone caught my eye, probably would have missed it, but the wooden mantle above it was gone, so it kinda stuck out.
And stuck out is a bit of an understatement. The keystone sat slightly proud, compared to the rest of the stones forming the arch. Looking closer I noticed there were two spots in the mortar that were slightly different then the rest. Looking REALLY close I saw that the mortar was dished in at those places, and I could see the rest of the mortar around the keystone, was under the it.
Well doing my best "Indiana Jones" I put a finger in each spot and pulled on the keystone. Holy Crap, the stone moved!!!!!!!!
I decide in for a penny, and pulled the keystone out. Someone, sometime ago was one heck of a mason. The keystone was trimmed to sit inside the opening and had a lip on it to help hide the masonry joints, all from a single piece of field stone.
Finally dawned on me after staring at the craftsmanship of the mason work, I might want to look inside the opening. DUH!
Well I used my lighter to peer inside, wasn't about to blindly stick my hand in some dark dank hole. And there sitting inside as pretty as could be was a Tupperware container? Nope no mason jar, no strong box, no bag, a plain old Tupperware container. And it wasn't even a nice one, looked like it had been used, stained, and stuffed in there. Pulled it out, and it wasn't even Tupperware, it was Rubbermaid.
BUT, it was HEAVY!!!! Popped the top off and at first it looked like old Lester stashed his pocket change in it. I could see nickles, dimes, pennies in there. Then the light glinted off something gold.......................
Now I'm like the squirrel who's found a cache of nuts! Rip off my jacket and toss it on the ground, dump the coins on the jacket and I see LOTS OF GOLD!!!!
Holy Moley, GOLD COINS!!!! And then I started looking at them. Sorry to say they weren't Confederate Gold, more like Sacajawea Gold.
In the pile of coins were as stated, pennies, nickles, dimes, nothing spectacular, a whole slew of Sacajawea dollars, Susan B. Anthony dollars, Kennedy half dollars, and a filthy crumpled up piece of paper. Well I unfold the paper and find it's a pair of Silver Certificate Dollar bills, and inside them is an 1889 Indian Head Penny, encased!
Well now I'm like, oh my God, what do I do now? Looking all around to see if anyone has seen me, (there isn't another house for miles around, LOL!) I replace the keystone back, gather up the cache and make like the wind to get out of there. Huff it back to the rental car, and it hits me. What the heck am I going to do with this stuff? I can't take it on the plane can I? OK, I come up with a plan, stop at a bank and get coin rolls, and the odds and ends go in my pocket. Stuff the rolls in my carry on. Show up at the airport sweating bullets, just waiting to get asked what I'm doing with this stuff. Trying to think up an excuse as I stand in line. I'm up, dump my pockets into the tray with everything else, and decide to play stupid. Bag goes through the X-ray, meanwhile I waiting for the alarms to go off, they have to see I'm sweating and nervous.
Nope, stuff goes right through, no chimes/bells/whistles, no alarms, no guns, no strip search. I grab my bag and reload my pockets, and high tail it to the gate.
Get on the flight, stash my goody bag under the seat till we lift off. From then on it sat in my lap.
Get home and check out my find. First off I find that I left my stinking luggage at the airport.............
Screw it, I'll go back later and get it.
Here's what I did remember to bring home.
57 Sacajawea Dollars
3 Susan B. Dollars
1 Sacajawea that has engraving on the edge
1 James Polk that has same engraving
1 William H. Harrison, Ditto
1 Geo Washington, again ditto.
2 Silver Certificate Dollar bills.
10 Kennedy Halfs, and yep one is a '65 silver.
14 Dimes, misc
22 Nickles, misc
148 Pennies, misc
1 Smashed Quarter?
1 Indian Head Penny, 1889, encased
By my counting that's $78.24, face value.
Not to shabby for me.
Oh and now for the strange part. Some of these coins are dated AFTER old Lester passed on. Not real sure what to make of that. Only thing I can think of, is that Lester ended up in a home, and someone else might have lived in the house afterward for a while, found the the stash and either didn't know the value and just added to it, and forgot about it.............? Got me on that.
Like I said this is my first, so what do I do now? Cart the stuff to a coin shop?
Hope you enjoyed it almost as much as I did,
Brad aka Dr. Syn
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Gonna be tough to beat that find 
