Two days ago, I received an email from the firm that is handling the sale of the coins; probably because I have made a purchase or two from an auction firm that sells coins and western Americana.

Here is a link to the web version of the email I received.

Brian,

I read that very interesting acount that you linked to. The ten-million would always come in handy, but in reading that description, I can sense the emotional impact of the discovery. That would almost be some kind of “out of this world” experience, not just in terms of their enrichment, but also how deeply significant and personal must be the story of how that hoard of coins originated. I thought it was interesting how they felt almost overcome with visions of being confronted by the original owner. Not only was it powerful that they found the coins, but it was also powerful that somebody left them there.

Couple of years ago, a widow died here in town. She'd been widowed since the early 80's. No immediate family survived her. They had owned and operated a bar for years, and it closed in the early 1970's. They went on to other careers.

Long story short.. her house sat intact, just as she had left it, for a couple of years, until the bank that had been named executor of her estate got around to cleaning out the house in order to sell it.

Well, when they closed the bar, they didn't throw out anything... just brought everything home and put it in the house and garage. There was so much vintage bar/beer memorabilia it made my head spin. All this stuff in the house all these years and nobody realized it. Old beer stuff, not just Budweiser. This stuff brought collectors from near and far. One pair of items that stood out were a pair of brand new, still in the unopened cardboard boxes they came in, Budweiser all metal ice chests. Kind of a green color, galvanized steel insides. Even had the original equipment ice pick and bottle opener in place in their little cubbyholes in the lid. $300 each for those.

But, aside from the bar memorabilia treasure trove.. what was most exhilarating was the amount of coins and paper money they found stashed all over the house. There were 6 of these~ and I bought one.





There were quite a few $500's. They went for an average of $800. Stacks of brand new, consecutively numbered hundreds and fifties. Piles of them. All from the late 1950's

Coins... bucket fulls of silver coins. Handfuls of rare coins. Gold coins, half dimes and the like.

All this money was stored in hiding places in the old ladys' house.... nothing was in the bank. So, there were thousands and thousand of dollars just waiting to be found in the widows house. It was a run of the mill, unassuming plain jane house in a neighborhood. Ranch style house with 1 car attached garage. They thought they'd found it all and had it at the bank. But, when the auctioneers' men started carrying furniture out to set it in the yard for the auction.. the door on this old console TV/stereo flew open and more bundles of big bills spilled out... and the search was back on .... they found thousands more stashed in other furniture! I am buddies with the auctioneer and his crew... they told me all this.

They held the money auction at the bank. Police on duty at the door.

No one was sure why the couple have the bundles of brand new big bills, but the girls from the bank said that from the looks of them they were ordered direct from a bank or federal reserve bank...they said that back then the bank could actually get you a 1000 dollar bill if you requested it.
I, personally, think that they did what they did to skim off proceeds of the bar...and maybe some gambling operations going on there back in the day... and to convert handfuls of small bills into nice, crisp new stacks of bigger bills by trading it all in at the bank, then put it in the safe. Hide it from the tax man.

The 50's and 100's were in pads... just like you have a notepad on your desk, with the end of the sheets glued together which allows you to tear them off one at a time. Came from the mint that way. I've never seen anything like that before.

Anyway, there were six 1 grand bills there. They sold first. I was bound and determined that I was going to get one of them. First one sold for $1600. Me being no stranger to how auctions work, I was afraid that as the supply of bills went down that the price may go up, and I made a decision that I was going to get the next one. I got it for $1600, also.

Can't recall the price the others went for. But, it turns out I was bidding against real currency collectors, and they determine the value of the bills by the serial number, as well as condition. So, while I was just after a big bill, they were after bills with low serial numbers. These were series 1934 bills.

The "pads" of bills sold for face value plus so much. So, there were stacks containing 50 hundreds and 50 fifties... so that stuff didn't go cheap.

There's a novel in this concept, not difficult to imagine, really. Times like this, I wish I still knew Hollywood pitch people, you could make a really good movie with this...

A well know coin dealer is currently selling 1934 series $1000 notes for in the same condition for $1879. I neat thing to own, though personally I'd rather, and do, have an old $20 gold coin.