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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,882 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
621 Posts |
i hope this is the right section for this, I'm still kind of new to posting on here. anyway, I have been thinking about something and was wondering your guys thoughts. its kind of unusual but I really like the idea. ok, right now of course lincoln pennies and Jefferson nickels are incredibley plentiful but what about 200 years from now? what about 500? how about 2000? here is my idea. I have been keeping all change except for coins in awful shape and plan on continuing to do so. so by the time I am old and grey I'm sure I will have aqquired quite the hoard.well, instead of passing alot of the stuff that would only be face anyway down to heirs if they dont think its cool and will just turn them in for face what if I were to get alot of really good small storage containers that can survive a long long time and split up the pennies and nickels into said containers and then took a trip around the area digging holes in places unlikely to be found in the near future and put a container in the spot and then bury it for someone to find someday. some will never be found probably, but imagine what if even one or two do last for a long time and are found one day possibley centuries from now. I can see it now "Rare hoard of lincoln head memorial cents found by local boy..." Edited by justin3651
11/12/2012 3:23 pm
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
If it will not break you and storage is not a problem, then go for it.  |
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Valued Member
United States
106 Posts |
I have a couple caches I buried around my area for others to find, since I am a metal detectorist I felt it was my duty to give back for future generations. For the pennies I would stick with coppers since the newer stuff doesn't hold up well under ground. Also think hard about where you bury them, think of places that likely won't have a shopping mall built over it, historic sites,local monuments etc.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
844 Posts |
I think that's a great idea. Hardest part will be finding a place that won't turn into a parking lot or shopping mall! (and you won't be arrested for digging at)
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
621 Posts |
i am also thinking of maybe including a letter in the containers as well, explaining a bit about who I am, why I did what I did, etc, etc. do you guys think mystery stashes where nothing is known of the one who leaves it or ones where the info about who left it and why is known more interesting?
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
 Could be fun BUT probably just won't work. Way back when I was a kid I buried some coins and things in a place where, as a kid, I thought no one would ever dig. After many years I went back there and found all had been excavated for a new building. My wife came from a farm and buried coins in a can near a tree that was supposed to be there forever. We went back, new farm owners dug up all trees and plowed the area over and over. I took my Son to a park and we buried some stuff in a time capsule device we made. After many years we went looking for that spot and found a playground for kids full of kids things. And as you stick around you'll eventually hear how due to many reasons of computerazation, coins and currency will be like the dinosuars. Gone. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
613 Posts |
Maybe a deep hole like an old-fashioned well, that will be left alone for a while or better yet, simply filled in someday and built over without being excavated. I'm not really a metal detectorist or old bottle hunter, but I've always read that old outhouses are hotbeds for bottles and some coins, as well.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
I would not only exclude culls and damaged coins but also most of the heavily worn coins. This will keep your costs down a great deal with little impact on the importance of the coins to whoever gets them in the future.
You'll find the value of the coins can get quite high so you'll be tempted to just cash them in. But if you just put the 10 or 20% nicest coins of each date you'll end up with an actual "collection" of sorts and much less temptation.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Moderator
Australia
16808 Posts |
Quote:
ould be fun BUT probably just won't work.
Way back when I was a kid I buried some coins and things in a place where, as a kid, I thought no one would ever dig. After many years I went back there and found all had been excavated for a new building. My wife came from a farm and buried coins in a can near a tree that was supposed to be there forever. We went back, new farm owners dug up all trees and plowed the area over and over. I took my Son to a park and we buried some stuff in a time capsule device we made. After many years we went looking for that spot and found a playground for kids full of kids things. Just because all those things might happen, doesn't mean the coins won't eventually get found. The coins are likely to outlast anything built on top of them. Consider the ancient Roman coin hoards that still get found today. They'd have been buried in some easily findable place: under the biggest tree on the hill, or next to the corner of the villa. Fast forward a couple hundred years, and the tree and the villa are now gone without trace; after a few thousand years, even the hill itself will have started to change. Your biggest problem in keeping the coins hidden for a very long time is the invention of metal detectors. Those things are what is causing the modern rush of discovery of ancient coin hoards, and modern hoards are just as easy to find. You might think a hoard buried in a certain spot is "unlikely to be found", but chances are that metal detectorists will visit that place within a decade or two. Still, if you want to be devious and at the same time increase your chances of more of the hoards being found, bury lots of little hoards at widely separate locations with "treasure maps" in each cache, telling the future finder where the rest of the loot was buried. It'd be like a modern-day Copper Scroll. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1116 Posts |
The only thing that I would worry about after you've decided to hoard the coins is the weight factor. A box of nickels ($100) weighs in at 22 pounds, while a box of copper pennies weighs 16 pounds.
Right now the findings of copper pennies is about 23% for a box. That means that would will most likely have to search $100 of pennies to get $25 face of copper pennies. When you search the pennies you will probably find about 100 wheaties also. Those I would keep seperate.
There are some people who have machines that will sort the copper out of a box pennies and are going through about 15+ boxes a week.
edit: They are saying that they keep the copper pennies in either 5 gallon buckets or 55 gallon drums.
Edited by ghostrider
11/15/2012 5:04 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I guess if you really think about it all, there could well be ways of sort of making time capsules of coins.
1. In a large city with a somewhat stable large bank, open a safe deposit box. Fill with coins. Make arragements with the bank that the cost should come out of an account you set up. Now set up a large account with enough to last a few hundred years.
2. Acquire a water proof container. Fill with coins. Seal with also water proof material. Take to the middle of one of the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan for example. Throw that container in.
3. Do the same as 2. only take to those tar pits where they find all those dinosaurs and throw in there.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
979 Posts |
Just imagine the capsule of choice getting jammed by a hammer. Choose wisely. I have seen videos of people finding such capsules (of modern coins, not old unfortunately)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
613 Posts |
find a spot that will soon get built upon. That'll hold off detectorists for at least a few decades. I'll also still go with the idea of an existing deep hole of some kind.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
621 Posts |
thanks guys! I appreciate all the advice. I hope to be able to have heirs that want to and will keep my hoard going and pass it on but if not I think its a good plan b, money doesn't do much for you when you are dead. I will bury some in places where I think it will be covered for a long time. I really like the treasure map idea! if I do this before I die I will do that with some of them. (i would do most or all but then if someone finds 1 in the near future they could then find the whole thing and it would be all over.)
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New Member
4 Posts |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,882 |
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Posted 11/12/2012 3:14 pm
