Coins Under the Carpet

We are in the process of a basement renovation at my house (built 1964). Our contractor was tearing out some original non-original carpet and found these tucked against the baseboards:



1942 P and 1964 D. I am guessing these were dropped when the original flooring/carpet was being installed. The dime has some interesting toning!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

That's some carpet to last that long.

 

AT- carpet toning.

Back when I was a teenager we had an old chair in our living room that had been in the family for a long time. I lost my pocket knife in the cushions and opened up the bottom looking for my knife, in the process I found the knife and a 1945 Merc.

 

Nice finds. I bet that was some well-used carpet after 57 years of use.

 

Just talked to my mom, and it turns out it was not original carpet. Haha, now that I think of it, 57-year-old carpet does not seem likely at all. She says the coins were actually tucked against the baseboards. So they were probably dropped when the original flooring/carpet was installed.

 

10 years ago when we were in a different house we had this door frame with crack between the frame and the wall that went deep, and I used to drop low denomination coins into that crack.
Maybe in the future when the house is being renoved someone might stumble upon those useless coins!

 

When I was a young collector living in an efficiency apt. that the maintenance crew or manager could enter anytime, I hid my coins (flat) under a very thick Persian carpet w/pad that covered the living area. I had four different groups and rolled up a aide of the carpet where the coins I wanted to play with were located.

 

I just went into one of the rooms that is being renovated and checked along the edges of the floor for more coins. I found another coin--a Roosevelt dime laying face down. I thought, "Wow, another silver dime?" Nope, a lowly '65.

 

When my brother and I rehabbed his ‘new’ house (half of which was down to studs when purchased*) back in 2014, I put 4 ASEs in airtite holders, along the bottom of the frame before putting the sheetrock up

*hey, what do you expect for $65k.
For $85k total, he got a rehabbed house, including new electrical, furnace/boiler, and appliances, on a fenced double lot. Now valued at ~$210k (2 BR in a lower income city)

 

This got me thinking of a book I read once (no idea the title) where a brother and sister were visiting their grandparents family home and found a shred of paper from 100 years earlier with a treasure hunt clue. They followed the treasure hunt, but many landmarks were missing. Still they pressed on, followed the clues, and eventually found the "treasure".

The treasure was a couple of gifts (a doll and something else) that were hidden for their Great-grandfather and his sister to find a hundred years earlier. Something happened where they couldn't find the next clue and they never discovered the gifts.

I always liked the idea of finding something hidden years earlier.

 

I'm not saying I'm old, but it was comon for house builders to put a penny under the base board for good luck when building a home.
When was your house built?

 

You've an honest contractor.

 

House was built in 1964. It's possible that the coins were deliberately placed, but they also could have just slipped out of someone's pocket. They could have been used as shims as well.

 

For sure. We're lucky to have him. I helped install flooring one day just to add to my home repair knowledge, and he insisted on paying me afterwards.

 

Wow. You don't find that kind much in these fast times. Make sure and recommend him, wherever you can. Guys like that deserve it, and much, much more.

 

Best luck we had was when we were moving into our house, and taking down the spectacularly ugly window treatments in the master BR. We took down one, and a pair of $20 bills fell out of it. You'd better believe we checked carefully each time we took something down after that.

 

Built in 64.
I'd say the penny was deliberately placed.
The 42 dime anyone's guess

My parents house was built in 59 and we found 2 1959 pennies under the base board in a back bedroom when we replaced the flooring.

 

When I was in college I went to West Virginia as part of a church service trip, and one of the things we did there was help to tear down an old house. I found two 1918 wheat pennies while doing the work. Not high value coins or anything but at the time I was pretty excited as they were some of the oldest coins I had. I ended up giving one of them to a girl on the trip who was interested though.

 

Ohoh....I am a sucker for fill in the context and scenario sentences.

 

My house was built in 1865. I bought it back in 1981 and spent many years renovating it. The best thing I found was some old boos bottles stuck under the roof near a very old and original sky light. When I was renovating one bedroom before my daughter was born I took a 2 x 2 flip and stuck a 1987 mint state quarter in it and nailed it to one of the 2 x 4 studs. Figuring someone may find it long after I'm gone.