Talk about luck

My brother called me last night and asked me if I could list an item for sale on craigslist.com for his hunting buddy. While I was posting the ad for him, he was telling me that they were in the woods behind our alma mater yesterday, heading to their fishing hole and he noticed something shiny on the ground in some rusted metal near the fence.

He bent down and picked it up and it turned out to be a 51 Washington quarter. He also noticed part of a plastic bag sticking out of the ground under where the quarter was, and when they dug it up, it had 8 rolls of pre-64 Washington quarters.

So I go down there this morning, he lives about an hour and a half from me, to see if he has anything rare, what condition they were in, etc.

All are quite circulated, nothing rare at all, dates ranged from 51-64. He was thinking of changing them in at the bank and I said whooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanoooooooooooo you don't. He wasn't aware that pre-64 contain 90% silver and the total melt value of all 8 rolls is a little more than $1800.

He fell off his chair when I told him that, but when he was telling me on the phone last night about finding 8 rolls of Washingtons buried in the ground, I fell off my chair definitely.

So I told him, to hang on to them as they have silver value for sure. I told him if he thought of selling them to call me and I would hook him up with some reputable places near me that buy silver coins and would give him a good price for them.

Good thing he called me before he did anything with these rolls. He was going to change them at the bank Monday morning for face value.

 

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Wow great find, I would go over that area again with a fine tooth comb!

 

I think they're planning on metal detecting that entire area and see if there's anything else buried there.

 

It is good to have a brother. Thanks for posting this.

 

edited

 

This is good news for everyone except your local roll hunters. :devil:

 

Sounds to me like someone stole them and stashed the bag. I'd check with the local authorities before I did anything.

Chris

 

I wouldn't bother,they wouldn't be able to prove if they were stolen anyway,and your brother would probably lose them.

 

Thats pretty cool. And its not like he was metal detecting.

 

Maybe you would feel different if it was your stolen property. You're talking about proving ownership, and I'm talking about morals and the right thing to do. Besides, if the police cannot locate the owner or it never gets reported, the finder is entitled to it.

Chris

 

If it was my stolen property, then my insurance probably already gave me a check for it.:devil:

No offense.. but the thing was burried. Even if it was stolen.. and not a stash... it "could" have been burried for years...

Besides, if they were truly stolen.. they'd have been sold long ago on ebay, "cash 4 gold" stores of some such... Any criminal willing to risk prison rape for 4 rolls of circulated silver quarters doesn't seem the type to head out to the woods to bury them.


There are moral issues... and then there's common sense. The true owner, if we get to brass tacks, is the land owner. Any serious metal detector will tell you that if you dont have permission from the land owner to dig or remove "treasure"... then legally speaking, it aint yours.

Me? My opinion... enjoy your find, and cash it in. For good karma, maybe donate $100 of it to a good local charity.

 

Silver is highly reactive, so if they had been buried for any length of time, you could tell easily. I think someone tried to hide it quickly. Otherwise, the bag would not have been partially in view.

What I find pathetic is that in the two years I've been a member here, the list of people whom I wouldn't trust with my grandmother's counterfeit coins is rather long.

Chris

 

If that ever happened to me I would constantly feel like someone is following me with a gun wanting their money back.

 

I've dug quite a bit of silver, and most of it comes out of the ground bright & shiney. Depends on the soil. Tons of vids on youtube of metal detecting digs if you dont believe me.. coins in the ground from decades to centuries... come out nice & shiney...

I know up here in Flint Michigan, high crime central... all our thugs who rob & steal can't wait to rush out to deserted forests to bury their loot. I mean, its the latest craze amongst the criminal element. No one hides their stuff at a friends house, or sells it to someone else who can launder it on ebay, ect... Nope.. they bury it in the woods. Must do it at night too.. so no one can see them!


We're not talking about A BANK BAG.... we're not talking about a briefcase filled with unmarked bills... we're talking about four rolls of quarters. Burried.

 

Chris while I too feel morally that returning stolen property is the right thing to do and if in a situation where I find stolen property and know its stolen I would return the goods without thought, I do feel you are not considering something.

Because of peoples greed 99 times out of 100 if you go to the police to find out if a theft of a similar item has occurred and it has not you will be asked to leave the goods there for 30-90 days then if it is not claimed you may claim it for yourself.

A big problem though is almost every time someone will catch wind of the valuable possibly being stolen the someone will come in falsely claiming it was stolen from him and taking it for themselves.


If someone drops some money as they walk by I pick it up and run them down to give it back. If someone loses their wallet and it has their ID inside I go to their house and give it back (or call them if i find their number). But if I find a random bag of quarters, unmarked in a random field that nobody has been to for as far as i can tell a long time, well, I am keeping it.

 

Agreed... good post snapsalot

 

First thing he did. No reports within the past 6 months, anyway, of stolen coins.

 

Times Are A-Changing!!

I would like to agree with you, but I believe you'll find that the local police agencies have jurisdiction on returns, and seemingly become corrupted by the "easy money".

We just recently had several incidents which deny the perceived legal understanding of "found funds/properties". The argument of local policing agencies is often that "abnormal" funds/properties must be part of illegal activities. They often argue that without appropriate legislation/statutes, found items belong to the local constables, for their disposal discretion.

I myself have experienced burglaries where numerous valuable items (e.g. guns, ammunition, coins, vehicles) were stolen, and upon being retrieved, went into a properties vault. The items weren't properly returned, but disposed (often taken by officers) of to acquire "equipment" for the controlling agency. Our local Sheriff purchased expensive private (personal use) vehicles for "Senior" department employees. We currently have initiated an investigation where some properties were returned by officers. As with the majority of public agencies, guilty parties are generally exempt from prosecution, unless the incidents are really flagrant (e.g. selling the incoming Presidents congressional seat).

We've recently had an exception because of appreciable public "outcry", see: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/police-confiscate-waitresss-12k-tip-then-agree-to-return-it/

I wish you were correct, but reality often prevails, where "government" implements unchecked policies of self-interest.

 

I'm willing to bet there is a lot of our cash in circulation that would get a hit from a "drug dog".... hehehe

 

Nice stereotype, but baseless assumption.

I think there's more to this than you're letting on.