Got all excited

Got all excited was working on my house and was cleaning out some of the crap between the floorboards (original late 18th c wide pine) and I noticed a coin in there. A little green and saw some reeding so figured it was a dime. Finally got it out of there.... crap. 1972. At least it could have been silver

 

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That's my favorite part of remodeling. I haven't found anything better than yours but I still look,

 

I remember as a kid, my dad and uncle buying a house and remodeling it. It was probably built in the 30's or so. But I do remember them taking out a wall and I found a wheat penny. I thought that was pretty cool. This was back in the early 80's.

 

I live in The heart of Dixie. Downtown was an historical building that was an eyesore. The building was the confederate mint. My company was contracted to be involved in a renovation of that building. Talk about excited! Just knew we might find engraving plates hidden before Sherman arrived. All kinds of scenarios played through my mind. Alas, absolutely nothing numismatically speaking came out of that old place shy of a few old whiskey bottles.

 

I’m sure they were empty. Drinking on the job was a lot more common back then

 

I’ve always hoped I’d find something here. God knows it’s old enough. A high grade chain or wreath cent would be nice. Or some flowing hair silver. All were new after this place was built. House is ca 1785. I have a friend that dismantles and salvages then that’s found some good stuff. Best is an oak tree shilling. He sold me a 1827 large cent an 1804 spiked chin half cent. He’s found 2 of those and a Connecticut copper. Large cent went 61 at pcgs. Half cent 55 at ngc after some verdicare can’t get the oak tree away though I keep trying

 

Years ago my uncle was working on a house where an old-timer had passed away and the relatives we're trying fix a few things before selling it I believe. As Legend has it when he got down into the crawl space he noticed two or three coffee cans full of silver dollars and another box full of pennies and nickels mostly in wrappers. He came back up out of there and told the owners I got to run to the hardware store to get a part...I'll come back and finish the job tomorrow and buttoned-up the entrance. He came back the next morning at about 5 a.m. and eased down in there got the coffee cans and eased back out and took off with them. Of course he never came back and do the job that day as he was shopping the coins around at coin shops.
He ended up getting $15 a piece for the silver dollars ($1700 total) and I asked him if they actually looked at any of the dates he said no they just ran them through a machine. So it sounds like to me he ripped the homeowners off and the coin shop owner ripped him off...
To this day I still drool thinking about what may have been in there

 

Love those old stories, keep em coming

 

What do you mean “back then?”

 

Found while cleaning my mother in law's house a shilling of Elizabeth I. Pretty worn, but date (15)64 was visible. House is not in the UK and no collectors lived there. A little strange.

 

I remember when I was a kid (in the 1950s) my dad was remodeling our old house and I always hid coins inside the walls for some future treasure hunter to find. I also liked to put coins in knot holes in trees and watch for a few years as the wood enveloped them. Probably just destroyed those tree coins with the sap, etc. I can still remember one white oak tree that has a silver dime in it, on the east side, about 15 feet up. Another cedar with a Jefferson nickel back inside the wood.

 

So you were an early tree spiker?

That's really cool about hiding coins in the walls for people to later find.

 

I was remodeling an old farm house that had been built in the 1800's. When I got under the stairs which had a door and was used as a closet I found a late 1800's Morgan dollar stuck in a crack way in the back of the closet. I was all excited and put it in my collection. It ended up being a counterfeit and it is sitting on a shelf in my basement. To this day I wonder what it was doing there - a counterfeit Morgan in an old farm house out in the middle of nowhere under the staircase. I'm guessing a kid was playing with it in the closet or something.

 

EVERYONE here should hide a shield cent in their house so that future owners can be all excited about "one of those round shiny things they used to use instead of smart phones."

 

Row homes built in Baltimore usually have a IHC placed under the molding somewhere in the home . It was some custom that finishing carpenters would do.

The best story I know of was the kids here in Baltimore durring the depression, who for lack of a better thing to do... kicked holes in a run down vacant home.
At which they found a hoard of gold coins.

 

Good idea but in 50 years zinc rot would render if unrecognizable. Though will modern houses hold up. As far as im concerned a lot of modern building materials hold up about as well as a zincoln. My house is very well framed post and beam and has nearly all its original woodwork floors etc. most of the original wall plaster is intact too. The ceilings as a rule are the problem is what I’m working on now. I’m trying to keep it as absolutely close to original as possible but comfortable for today’s living too

 

Frowned upon today. They didn’t have power tools either It makes s difference

 

I love some of the buildings in Baltimore. I’ve been in the basements of most of the larger buildings in downtown. I’m always on the lookout for cool stuff.

A few summers back when the Washington monument was being renovated, I was doing some work in the basement. They were digging it out to put in some new electrical equipment. One of the guys was telling me about all the stuff they were finding. The things I saw were pretty cool, old whiskey botttles, a few spoons that I’m pretty sure were silver, old nails that were probably from bracing when it was originally built and a bunch of other little stuff. He mentioned that they found a couple of coins as well. He said they were old and dirty, and he didn’t know that they were. I wish I could have taken a look at them but his boss took them. I would love to know what they were. The monument was built between 1815 and 1829 so you could imagine what coin they pulled out of there

 

I lived for over 20 years in Maryland, sometimes in Baltimore. There is some really old stuff around there! When I was a kid it was common to find hand made nails, buttons made of oyster shell, all kinds of old stuff. I mentioned in another thread about finding about 100 brass trade tokens in an old basement hole in Howard County.

 

Baltimore has been a source for great stuff forever. Is an early city yet never really appreciated for it’s history. For years a lot of the best Baltimore antique furniture (ca 1775-1840) in its true heyday of fine cabinet work came often from old black families They were the servants and housekeepers post civil war and in Victorian times the people would give the outdated furniture to the help. That today is the things that have real value and after the emancipation proclamation many former slaves stayed with their former masters and families as paid help. Im not saying slavery was right but there were many slave owners that treated their slaves as basically family too and as people. It’s the awful ones we all remember though. Case in point Phyllis Wheatley the first black woman in America to publish a book. Her owners a wealthy Boston family had her educated along with their own daughters. It’s when we lose sight of and edit history is when the problems begin.