Cash In On Cache Hunting

Cache hunting is metal detecting on steroids.  The digging of not one coin but a hoard of clinking cash.  This goes far beyond the norm of metal detecting and it takes a special type of individual to master no just the detector itself but the additional skill and patients that's required.

All across America people were living and conducting commerce all without banks, checks, or credit cards for hundreds of years.  Yes, cash was king.  But where was all this cash when not in play?  Who could you trust?  How safe was safe?

Looking back a few years ago families were rigidly structured intidies.  The male was the keeper of the castle and dare none to object.  That is not without saying the wife, or significant other, didn't have other suggestions, especially when it came to money.

In those days if the male died, left, or was a little to much to handle, the woman had to survive.  My grandmother told me that in her day wives would always try to build up a cash reserve of their own.  They would not think of it as stealing but a sort of personal banking, it was money still in the family.  Her banking deposites usually occured in the house, chicken coop, or other location she could frequent without suspicion.

On the other hand, the husband was in control of the family wealth.  Small or large he had to protect the families nest egg.  No banks, or trust in them, he had to find a safe place to hold his money while he conducted his daily activities.  This place had to be where he could go to without suspicion, away from a snoopy wife and inquisitive children, and he himself could easily view during his daily actvities, he was his own security guard.

So goes old grandpa and granma stashing away cash.  But the catch was that when they would pass away what happend to the goody boxes?  Now I am not saying that there are two caches in every homestead.  But a women did not trust the man as much as you migh think.  And I don't think the man trusted to his wife the location of his little stash.

When looking for these caches you must have patients.  It is not like going to the park and every three feet a ping.  You are looking for a needle in a hay stack.  This hay stack can be big or small depending on the skill of the hunter.  The skill is in thinking like old grandpa and grandma and reading about where other hunters have found their caches.  Soon you will start to get the mindset into this unique type of treasure hunting.

When you have done this for a while you will begin to see yourself going into automatic mode everytime you walk into a house or barn.  It might be just visiting friends, but you will be seeing those hiding places in plain sight.  It will take all you have not to investigate the fireplace mantel while everyone else is eating dinner in the dinning room or just kicking the baseboards.

Women have had their hands on ever inch of their houses.  You would be surprised on how well they know their house after cleaning it for just a few years.  And the man in his tool shed could build a special place for his own 401K.  They were not playing games when it came to their money and it would be up to you not to treat this as a game.  For if you win, you are not paid in Monopoly money.

Why are successful cache hunters so good at what they do?  I like to use what is above my shoulders and I have learned to be patient early on.  Read and talk with outhers that share the same passion for this endeavor.  Reality is when you are detecting old homesteads the coins you find are few if any at all.  The coins are in the cache.  FIND THE CACHE!

Treasure Hunters are green, we are recycling.
-Roy-

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,20962.msg139516.html#msg139516

Well said...
I know you're mentioning Grandma and Grandpa hiding $$$...but MY wife thinks I hide money in the backyard in coffee cans even today!  Little does she know it's well hidden in my workshop...in the coffee cans in plain sight! Hasn't found it yet... :

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,20962.msg139603.html#msg139603

You're talking about my grandparents.
People today think that practice was unusual, and only entered into by a few eccentrics. After 1929, it was a long time before people went back to banks, and some folsk never did. My grandparents had a store, and when we moved grandmother out after grandpa died, we found boxes of loot. The only thing we didn't find was confederate money.

Minorities (primarily African -Americans and natives) in the south didn't have much to do with banks either, before and after the depression.

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Paper money might seem tricky at first.  Then you realize that the older generation knew critters would consume there money faster than Uncle Sam.  Most all paper money I have recovered was inside a container that was either made of metal or at least the lid was metal.  All the others were tucked away in compartments.  These compartments were not found with the medal detector but by just searching.

Thanks for the additional information for it is welcomed.  It got me thinking a little different on a few things I had not considered.  It brings back memories of me and some fellow hunters having a few sips of Southern Comfort and discussing this very topic.  They are gone now and it is nice to go down memory lane.  And to top it off, I just had a few sips.

I wonder if this is going to be like the other activities the younger generation is not following up on.  It would be a shame if they don't have experiences that create a lifetime of great memories.  I remember the first cache I found, and without a metal detector.  A brass flashlight packed with a roll of twenty dollar bills and a few 2 dollar bills.  I still get a pucker thinking about that cherry experience.

I'll take this over rap any day,
-Roy-

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Look for old chimney foundations. Homes often burned down leaving only the door steps or chimney foundations as sort of a tombstone for the ages.

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