I decided to drive up to my families lake house this morning to check on it and make sure nothing was amiss. On my 2 hour drive up here, I decided to take in some Coin Show episodes, specifically episode 87, where @LostDutchman discusses the Economite Hoard which was discovered in late 1878. According to PCGS's little write up "...in or around 1836, the "Rappites" as they were called, sealed approximately $75,000 in face value of U.S. silver coins in a vault and covered it in brick and mortar. For the next 42 years or so, the coins remained sealed in the dark, damp vault. Then in late 1878, the coins were found, blackened and tarnished from their long storage." First off, How does a group of people seal up $75K and forget about it?! Do we know if the discovery was made by someone linked to the Rappites? I would just think somewhere in 40 years someone who knew about it told their kids or grand kids or what have you...how does that get forgotten? Going to be doing some more research on this...I gotta know
Did they (the Harmony Society) keep it locked away thinking it would go up in value, or was it just their emergency stash that someone, at some point in time, said lets break that puppy out and get what we can. But the way the story reads is that the hoard was "found" who found it, found to me is, "holy crap...look what I just found!"
I suspect that very few people were told *where* the coins were being stored, and if the treasurer of the society passed away unexpectedly, no one may have known the location. I would also like to know more about the discoverer and situation around the discovery. Reading about the hoard (as analyzed in the 1804 Dollar book) really made my mouth water!
I'm actually the one that did the research for that show . I'm glad you liked it, and firstly thank you for being a fan of the show! Unfortunately why the hoard came to light (and indeed even the exact time frame it was buried..and where) is a bit of a grey area as Matt mentioned in the show. This hoard was not documented like the hoards of our time. Q David Bowers noted based on an old numismatic journal that the Harmonists actually hid the coins in the vault when John Hunt Morgan was on his great raid of 1863. Although he never made it to Pennsylvania, he did cut all the way from Kentucky to east Ohio. This is plausible explanation, but I don't think the harmonists ever really forgot about the hoard. There were still harmonists around in the 1870s and I believe they simply kept the coins in the vault because that was what they had always done, and prior to the 1870s hoarding of all types of change was very very common. Basically after 1837 it was one economic crisis after another until after the Civil War. They were an egalitarian society, they didn't need to spend the coins. Hassletine (the man who purchased the hoard) was a big coin collector in his time. He was actually the same guy who tracked down and purchased the original confederate cent die, but that's another story. Hassletine must have caught wind of the hoard and purchased it through the society. It wasn't a big "discovery" and nor was there anything particularly rare in it (for the era at least!). Hopefully that helps clarify. I think the Economite hoard is a fascinating story, and I'm really glad we were able to discuss it in episode 87. I wish there was more info I could give you but it is challenging to find a lot of information about it, because as I mentioned, it just wasn't a big deal in its own time.
There are many other enigmatic hoards - the one that comes to mind for me is the Randall hoard of 1817-1820 cents that were found in a jug in Georgia and then the Virginia halfpennies from 1773.
@sshafer11, I thought it was great info, thoroughly enjoyed the piece. This is probably one of the things I like most about this hobby (sickness really), the rich history that goes long with it. What you said here does help to make more sense as to how it prolly went down. I appreciate you weighing in. You have me curious now, wondering how their egalitarian lifestyle meant that they didn't need to spend the coins. I not familiar with Egalitariniam, other than knowing the basic meaning. Care to expand on that? I'll definitly be running that down more. BTW I live in Muncie, IN, about an hour from the Lost Dutchman store. I need to make it down there and meet y'all. I lived around 21st and German Church for but 5 years, then in Fishers for about 7 years, but wasn't "in to coins" then, go figure.
Egalitarian might have actually been the wrong word choice..at least slightly hehe. It was really more what we'd consider now a "communist" society. Basically the Harmonists or Rappites believed that the only real purpose in life was to prepare for the imminent return of Christ. They basically saw their settlement as a sign of commitment to god. So lets say your a carpenter in this society. The profits you make from carpentry go to the coffers of the society rather than your own pocket. The society, in turn provides you with the supplies, shelter, food, that you need to survive and prosper. And this is just a general note about the "west" of America as it was known during the era of the Harmornists. Most people did not use hard money for transactions in general. Hard money was scarce and it was only used when necessary. It was the best form of payment because it was universal and intrinsically valued but most people would either use credit with other merchants, dubiously backed paper money, or simply barter for most transactions. The harmonists did not take kindly to these methods of payment and instead preferred coin, but the way their society was built, they would have been less prone to needing to spend it when the time came as they were self sufficient. And as I mentioned during times of economic uncertainty throughout the 19th and early 20th century people tended to hoard hard money, the harmonists would have wanted to protect their "real" wealth and thus the monetary backing of their society, just like other civilians. At least this is my interpretation of it from the sources I read. I couldn't find any sources specifically mentioning know why the hoard stop growing, but it is timed perfectly with the panic of 1837 which brought about some of the worst change hoarding the country has ever seen.
THAT my friends is a CRACK research staff! Actually Sam and I work pretty well together. I brought him the idea for the segment and he ran with it. He has been a really great addition to the podcast.
