Unexpected Treasure Find

[Ezra]

So there is an outdoor vending machine I use sometimes. A couple of times it has ripped me off when a bag of chips gets irretrievably stuck.

So this last time I buy a $1.25 item with two dollar bills, and get 4 quarters back instad of 3. Cool a bit of a refund. So I put the 4 quarters in to get a $1 item.

One of them falls straight though to the change slot. I put it in again and it goes clunk into the change slot again. I figure at this point it is probably a Canadian quarter. I take a look, nope it's American. In it goes and clunk. Okay what's up? Is it a counterfeit?

Nope it is a 1964 silver quarter (different weight). Up to 1964 quarters were made of silver. And it is in really good condition too. Either uncirculated or close to it. Worth about $4 going by Ebay prices.

So have you ever come upon an unexpected little treasure?

 

[Karamazov]

Let’s see,
I’ve found a ten-pound note in a book I bought from a charity shop. (After I moved town and couldn’t take it back in... )

I found a backstage pass ticket for Metallica’s 91-2 world tour pasted onto an the side of old radio a customer was throwing out. (Worth £5 eBay tells me)

I dug up an intact Victorian sink whilst making a new flowerbed for my mum.

I have an intact bird skull (with lower jaw) I found walking through the hills when I was a kid: not valuable, but they’re rare due to fragility and I was collecting bones at the time.

 

[Ezra]

Let’s see,
I’ve found a ten-pound note in a book I bought from a charity shop. (After I moved town and couldn’t take it back in... )

Oh yeah my biggest find along those lines was a $20 bill in a parking lot. Absolutely no one was around to return it to. Not quite a "treasure" item, but still, cha ching.

(By "treasure" I mean something rare or antique or collectable or made of a precious metal etc.)

 

[Karamazov]

Oh! I forgot.
I was repairing some floorboards in the attic of the house I lived in a decade ago (19th century terrace), and found a box with some kind of fabric and wood doll that had been partially burned in the cavity, along with a bundle of home-made wooden washing pegs and a chain of paper fairies.
I put it all back where I found it though, bit creepy: would that count?

 

[Ezra]

Oh! I forgot.
I was repairing some floorboards in the attic of the house I lived in a decade ago (19th century terrace), and found a box with some kind of fabric and wood doll that had been partially burned in the cavity, along with a bundle of home-made wooden washing pegs and a chain of paper fairies.
I put it all back where I found it though, bit creepy: would that count?

Absolutely that counts. And yeah, that sounded like the beginning of a creepy book or movie.

 

[oregano]

I found a Swiss coin in the reject slot of a Coinstar machine while dumping out my coin dish. It is about the size of a US 5 cent "nickel". I also came across a Mercury dime in the same fashion. Silver was demonetized in the US in 1964, and people held on to their silver pocket change after that. The pre-demonetized silver quarter had a design that was kept for many years in the non-silver quarter.

 

[Giraffes]

I found a sample Burberry skirt at a clothes swop party and sold it for £50
A italian design hand-bag for £5 that retails at £120
A poole vase at a boot sale for £2 that retails at £60
So yes in my field of interest i often find treasure.

 

[Major Tom]

The weight of the silver may make it worth than $4 though silver prices are down now. It will be well worth saving for the future though. Nice score!

I once found $35O in a car I was detailing, but stupid honest me gave it to my boss, because I thought he would try and return it to the owner, but nope... The very next day we ended up with a new refrigerator in the shop. I was strapped for cash at the time and could have used it for rent. Facepalm

 

[Raggamuffin]

Buried treasure eh?

One day in summer, many moons ago, we helped our neighbour dig their garden up to make way for a pond. We helped lay the lining and the dad fitted the pump etc and lo and behold - a pond was finished by the end of the day.

During the dig, we found lots of bits of broken ceramic, some pottery, and an old set of keys - big old fashioned type keys. When we finished the pond me, my brother and the kids from next door went into their camper van and laid out all the treasures we'd found and carefully washed and cleaned them - before sorting through them.

The next day, me and my brother thought it'd be a good idea to find the treasure buried within our garden. Bearing in mind - my parents maintain their garden to a meticulous standard, especially their prized, well kept (and weed free) lawn.

So we grab shovels from my dads workshop and set about digging a big hole in the middle of the garden.

Needless to say - we found no treasure. Instead we found out (in no uncertain terms) that we weren't ever allowed to dig a hole in the garden again. After a firm telling off and a few weeks to cool down, our parents saw our enthusiasm and they allowed us a place to dig.

I think their "favour" was wrapped in a bit of sarcasm/sadism, as the place we could dig was in the far corner of the garden, where there was no grass to disturb. It was between 2 brick walls and behind a very large and very spiky hedge.

My brother wasn't as passionate as I was - and in the end tantrums were thrown, and then we started threatening, and then proceeding to push one another into the spiky hedge. Tears, emotions, and running back inside the house to sulk. My treasure hunting days burned briefly, and not very brightly. Why isn't life as satisfying as The Goonies?

I would like a metal detector - but again, I think it's a hobby that seems like a nice idea, but would cost me a lot of money. Speaking of treasure, there's a UK Comedy show called Detectorists. It's one of the most charming and peaceful comedies I've seen in years.

Ed

 

[Misery]

Ah, I've got one from years ago.

I'm at a convention, right. Crowded. Well, crowded except for the walkway between hotels. I was at the hotel at the very end of it, and most people at the con were staying at the main one, not the side hotels. So the walkway was often empty when I'd be going down it.

First day there, I'm walking through, aaaaaaaaaand.... $70 on the ground. Just sitting there in plain sight. Boy was I surprised.

 

[Tom]

I worked at Radar Sites a lot. Once, while one of the systems happened to be pointed at the breakroom (I could see it thru the large breakroom window) the coke machine started going nuts and coins started pouring out of the change slot like a slot machine paying off. I ran over to it to catch the coins with my hands and it filled up and even overflowed them before stopping. Those of us in the breakroom made the usual jokes about that being reassuring and not wanting to have kids anyway.

 

[Ezra]

I found a sample Burberry skirt at a clothes swop party and sold it for £50
A italian design hand-bag for £5 that retails at £120
A poole vase at a boot sale for £2 that retails at £60
So yes in my field of interest i often find treasure.

I had those sorts of finds in mind also.

 

[Ezra]

One time me and some friends found a treasure map in an attic and followed it to a pirate ship full of treasure. Oh wait, never mind, that was a movie called The Goonies.

 

[Ken S.]

The best treasure I ever found was a large chunk of Jade (Weighed over a pound). Don't know how it ended up in a creek bed in Garland, Texas.

 

[Els]

I found 50€ in the sea. I don't know if it's a treasure. I spent them fast and I don't even remember in what. Lol.

I also found a cat in the streets, I was drunk and thought I was hallucinating. It's my cat now. She doesn't live at home because of the dogs and I don't know why she can't stand being inside a home (she pants and feels extremely distressed). She lives outside and in the garage, comes for food and I meet her sometimes. I think she's a treasure It's funny she never forgets me and runs to me if she sees me even when we don't meet for months.

 

[Tom]

I found 50€ in the sea. I don't know if it's a treasure. I spent them fast and I don't even remember in what. Lol.

I also found a cat in the streets, I was drunk and thought I was hallucinating. It's my cat now. She doesn't live at home because of the dogs and I don't know why she can't stand being inside a home (she pants and feels extremely distressed). She lives outside and in the garage, comes for food and I meet her sometimes. I think she's a treasure It's funny she never forgets me and runs to me if she sees me even when we don't meet for months.

 

[Thinx]

I have found paper money in the street a number of times, a ten and a twenty pound note folded in a square once, and 3 ten pound notes fluttering about quite recently, plus some five pound notes. I look down a lot so tend to spot them I guess, also UK new money is plasticy and I think people don't notice it fly away. No one around any of the times I found it, but once I found a purse and once a mobile phone, both of which I was able to get back to their owners, and also a bank card in the gutter ditto.

 

[Els]

View attachment 63431

Ahah yes that's pretty much how I felt

 

[Tom]

I found 50€ in the sea. I don't know if it's a treasure. I spent them fast and I don't even remember in what. Lol.

I also found a cat in the streets, I was drunk and thought I was hallucinating. It's my cat now. She doesn't live at home because of the dogs and I don't know why she can't stand being inside a home (she pants and feels extremely distressed). She lives outside and in the garage, comes for food and I meet her sometimes. I think she's a treasure It's funny she never forgets me and runs to me if she sees me even when we don't meet for months.

That also reminds me of my first pet, a young stray cat I adopted, secretly at first, when I was 11. My parents found out of course (Who keeps on eating the tuna!?) and kindly allowed me to feed it properly, as long as it stayed outside. When she had kittens in the garage it strained the situation but they let it be, 'as long as they stay outside'. But the cat must have felt the garage unsafe and one morning kept depositing the kittens in the back seat of my Dad's car. Jumping up with them one by one, thru the open window. After two attempts to put them back and the cat just coming back kittens in mouth they gave in and The cats moved into the basement with me. She was a really amazing cat. Moved in like she had been there all along. Needed no training. Was amazing hunter, etc. But always generally aloofish. Lasted 17 more years and though at the end was very ill she waited a last few months for me to come home on leave from the military, and rebounded and played like it was old times for 3 days and then went outside and curled up and died peaceably.

 

[Els]

That also reminds me of my first pet, a young stray cat I adopted, secretly at first, when I was 11. My parents found out of course (Who keeps on eating the tuna!?) and kindly allowed me to feed it properly, as long as it stayed outside. When she had kittens in the garage it strained the situation but they let it be, 'as long as they stay outside'. But the cat must have felt the garage unsafe and one morning kept depositing the kittens in the back seat of my Dad's car. Jumping up with them one by one, thru the open window. After two attempts to put them back and the cat just coming back kittens in mouth they gave in and The cats moved into the basement with me. She was a really amazing cat. Moved in like she had been there all along. Needed no training. Was amazing hunter, etc. But always generally aloofish. Lasted 17 more years and though at the end was very ill she waited a last few months for me to come home on leave from the military, and rebounded and played like it was old times for 3 days and then went outside and curled up and died peaceably.

So sweet !! I also adopted animals in secret from my parents they're great companions.