A few years ago, I had a sandwich sack of so called "junk" foreign and US silver coins. They were all doubles of what was already in my collection so I saw no need to spend time placing them in 2x2s. While on my way to a distant coin shop to cash'em in, I stopped by my parents house to visit. Mom inquired as to my sack of coins and told her that I was turning them into cash. She called me over to the pantry and said "why don't you donate them to the family shrine". "Shrine?" I said. I had totally forgotten that she had a little shrine in the pantry with money, food, candles, a cross, a bible, and pictures of deceased, or those in need, relatives and friends. I grimaced, but eventually donated my hoard to the shrine. That visit cost me a new tool box! I asked her why she had a shrine in the pantry. She said it had been a family tradition for generations. Later that evening I went online and discovered that the Romans had a similar, if not the same, shrine (lararium) in their houses (pantry). I know my family dates back to Jalisco, Mexico from 1509 and prior to that Valladolid, Spain as far back as the 11th century. This practice was popular in that region of romano-celt-iberian Spain according to church and local records. So I'm kinda sure my ancestors were doing that even before catholic records were kept. What worried me was that as a christian it seemed rather strange to have continued a kinda pagan tradition for so long and that I was now contributing to that. Eventually though, I got over the guilt and decided to make a little shrine in my house all with "junk" foreign and domestic silver. I have about 50 ounces now. Can't turn it in, too afraid of some sort of bad juju if I do. Yet I can't stop donating to the shrine now. It's like an obsession. Every time I find silver in junk bins or in change it goes right into what is now a very large dish. So now I'm vexed, is it pagan idolatry or simply family tradition?
My question is obvious.. If your family has been doing this for hundreds of years, where is all that STUFF? Every so often it seems the slate has to be cleaned of 'gifts' and someone profits from that. Who will get your silver hoard? Obviously NOT the dead that you are gifting it to. So it seems to me that there is no bad ju-ju as the dead probably want you to have that wealth, not try and share it with them. Unless they have conspired to get you to save some wealth for an unforeseen (to you) upcoming event.
Ha Ha. True. But...the family ranch in Mexico has about a thousand holes that my uncles have been digging for 40 years. Nothing yet. My grandfather did find a hoard of silver and gold in the 1940's. Some of which I still have. Funny, they're not real cobs. They're fakes, but in silver. I've had them tested. I'll upload a pic of one of them tomorrow.
