How often do tales of buried treasure turn out to be true? For one Wildwood, New Jersey, homeowner, rumors proved to be true. Wildwood is a barrier island resort city on the New Jersey coast. A homeowner there says he’s been renovating for about two years. Recently, he was digging in his yard and found what he thought was an old milk jug. The broken container held more than sand. It held rolled up $10 and $20 bills. The date on the bills was 1934. The money added up to $1,000, which, in 1934, was worth nearly $20,000.
“Every one of those bills had the same date on them. Either somebody during the Depression closed their bank account because they didn’t trust it and decided to bury it under the house or somebody stole it and was trying to hide it, and his last thought before he died was ‘oh that money, I forgot about it,’ ” the homeowner was quoted as saying.
Neighbors say local treasure tales have been passed down for generations but until now there was never any proof.
Photo: Philadelphia.CBSLocal.com
Found! Map Leads Man to Buried Treasure Near His Childhood Home
It was a treasure hunt prepared as a beyond-the-grave adventure for a then 10-year-old “grandson.” And it all started, according to Sky Rys, a senior product account executive with Onica/Rackspace, a consulting and managed services company, with a letter and a friendship that became a family.
Rys has fond memories of Buddy, a family friend who had treated the youth as a grandson, even though they were not related. Buddy’s wife was Rys’ godmother. When Rys was 10 years old, Buddy gave him a “map” written in a code. “He gave me clear instructions which were ‘. . . when I kick the bucket, you can decipher this code and find the buried treasure I hid for you,’ ” said Rys.
Buddy passed away two years ago and last fall, the now-adult Rys was able to finally sit down and decipher the code. He cracked it in less than an hour. He had always suspected it was buried on family property near where he had grown up. He currently lives just down the road from his family home, so he just grabbed an old metal detector and started sweeping the field. And there it was, under several feet of dirt: an ammo crate filled with hundreds of pennies from the 1940s and 1950s.
“It took me longer to find and figure out how to get the metal detecting equipment working then it did to dig it up!” said Rys. “I do not know the value of the treasure. I plan to give [the pennies] a cleaning. Then I’m not sure what I will do. Maybe I will hang onto them until I have a child or grandchild whom I can treat to a similar experience.”
The ending message on the map from Buddy to Rys? “Treasure worth more than face value. Good luck, Buddy.”
A few tips for treasure collectors. Don’t clean the coins. It may lower the value. Pennies can be worth anywhere from a penny to hundreds of dollars depending on condition and age. If you have any aluminum pennies, they are worth more than a standard copper penny.
As collectors, treasure hunting can be fun, and sometimes the hunt can be as much fun as the treasure. Please post in the comments if you want to share your treasure hunting story.
