Man Loses Keys, Finds 15th Century Relics Instead

[chewse]

I love these kinds of news articles....

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-livin...191705805.html

[TJ Kelley]

That is awesome... I love a good find story as well, thanks for sharing.

Heres my excellent find story:
I grew up in Clinton Iowa. In the mid 1800's-1930's this lil' Mississippi river town had more millionaires than any where in the USA, big lumber industry.
These lumber barons built unbelievable homes/mansions along Dutch elm lined streets.

During my youth, my father would buy these "turn of the century", victorian and gothic mansions, and restore them to single family homes.
In the late 50's-60's these mansions were converted to apartments, many with 20-30 units.

Discarding the old world craftsmanship and attention to detail they would cut out chunks of hand carved crown molding, destroy built in's and bookcases, ect. One even had a wall built dead center of a huge fireplace, chopping a 8" section of the mantel out.

We would find old treasures in every one of the homes, but my best find was the summer of 77'.
While demoing some wood flooring I found three, 2 1/2 dollar gold pieces. A 1881, 1902, and 1912.

These coins were removed from US currency for a short time, and worth more in gold weight.
Most were scraped, bringing todays value way up.

I had them appraised 10 yrs ago, at $1200US for the 81' and $250-300 for the other 2.
This find jump started my coin collecting. to date I have quite the collection built up for a rainy day or to pass on to my son someday.

Any other members have any good "find" stories, love to here them???