Where To Find Hidden Treasures

If you were to look for hidden treasures near where you live, you might check the attic of an old house, as well as some old garages. Soon you might run out of ideas. But treasure hunters know there are hundreds of places to look.

For example, they know the most common hiding places for money and valuables around a house. They know where things are commonly buried, and that people regularly die without telling a soul they have buried something there. They know where to point their metal detectors when at the beach or in the park. In other words, they have developed special knowledge.

Being a successful treasure hunter involves more than a few tricks and reading a few books though. It takes the right mind set. It requires patience, for example, to dig up fifty almost-worthless coins just to find that one that‘s worth something. It takes the ability to put oneself in the past and in the head of the person who buried a stash, in order to guess where to dig or search. It means habitually thinking about how to apply what is learned from one treasure hunt to the next.

The following is an example of one kind of hidden treasure, and a few places you might find it.

Coin Dumps

Coin dumps are places where people throw, collect or hide coins. A jar in the attic or basement is a common coin dump. So is a coffe can in the garage. There are many other potential locations.

Some treasure hunters used to find valuable old coins by kicking old gas tanks to listen for the rattling of coins. Why would there be coins in the gas tanks of old cars? Because of bank failures. You see, during the Great Depression people threw coins in their car gas tanks for safekeeping, having watched thousands of banks fail (and without FDIC insurance on their accounts). The gas tanks back then were easy to remove for later recovery, and gas doesn’t hurt coins.

It seems likely that almost all the old gas tanks have been kicked and emptied by now, but it should make us think about where else people might put coins. When we were young, my brothers and I used to throw pennies into a hole in the kitchen floor from time-to-time. I honestly don’t remember why we did this. We didn’t know where they went, but into the ceiling space in the basement is a likely guess.

There are probably only 30 or 40 pennies there, and this was in the 1970s, so it isn’t likely that this hidden treasure is worth much yet. On the other hand, what if kids did something like that in the 1920s, with some of the pennies dating back to the late 1800’s? Coins that old would have some value to collectors. This might make us look at the odd spaces in old homes differently.

Years ago I overheard a woman saying she was throwing her spare change into a hole in the wall. Why would she do that? Because she wanted the room remodeled, and filling the wall with money was her way of making sure her husband would eventually tear out the old drywall. Who knows how much money accumulated there before the wall was finally opened.

Or was the wall opened? It may seem a morbid thought, but what if the couple died before remodeling the room? Did they tell anyone else about the coin dump? And was the drywall then simply repaired rather than replaced by the next owner? People dying without telling anyone about their stashes is one of the most common reasons there are hidden treasures out there waiting to be found.