Mother used to tell us that there was supposed to be a treasure hidden in the walls of our house. She said her mother, my grandmother, used to say “Grandma hid a sack of money somewhere in one of the walls.”
We have yet to find a sack of money in a wall, or anywhere else, however I did find a fishing rod in the door facing of the back bedroom when I was reworking it. I’m not sure how anyone ever “accidently” put a fishing rod in a door facing, and, I suppose I will never know the answer to that. I do have it on display by the front door. Just because!
Last week, though, I felt certain we might have landed on a gold mine — a silver mine to be more precise. For some reason my wife, Danny, and I have gotten a burst of energy when it comes to the renovation and last week we worked ‘till bedtime every night.
We got the kitchen sink faucet replaced and have been working in that middle bedroom/laundry room that is now divided into two rooms a dressing room and a laundry room, all of which I mentioned here several weeks ago.
Once the floor was down, the clothes rack installed, and the wall up on the wall that had never been walled up, on the inside side anyway — just ancient studs was all that was there — it was time to clean up the mess and move all of our stuff out of the dining room and foyer back into the newly finished area.
Danny did the sweeping while I hauled the tools, which look more like all of my belongings now, out to the back porch. Then we set everything up and it all looked just like we had envisioned, if not better.
The next morning while finishing coffee and getting ready for work, Danny said to me, “is this dime old, I found it when I was sweeping up in there.”
It looked old at first glance, and when I washed it off and polished it up enough to read the date, it was old indeed — 1939 old. It’s a silver “Mercury Dime” and is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper according to the information Google provided me.
But is it that hidden fortune?
Is it worth a lot of money?
No.
This is the rest of what Google found for me.
“This coin in circulated condition is worth at least its weight in silver. The silver melt value for this coin is $1.82 as of November 12, 2021. This melt value is calculated from the current silver spot price of $25.15 per ounce.
“The 1939 dime with no mint mark is worth around $3 in very fine condition. In extremely fine condition the value is around $3.25. In uncirculated condition the price is around $8 for coins with an MS 60 grade. Uncirculated coins with a grade of MS 65 can sell for around $26.
“The 1939 D dime is worth around $3 in very fine condition. In extremely fine condition the value is around $3.25. In uncirculated condition the price is around $8 for coins with an MS 60 grade. Uncirculated coins with a grade of MS 65 can sell for around $32.”
Oh well, ours is a D so we’ll just have to keep searching the walls.
I did find another fishing rod on top of the old wooden crate a freezer came in sometime before my birth, that was fashioned into pantry shelves for the adjacent kitchen, also sometime before my birth. The back of it protrudes into the dressing room and serves as a neat focal point on one wall with an old ice cream freezer and picnic basket up on top.
Maybe there is a market for old fishing rods. Maybe I’ve been looking for the wrong kind of treasure all these years when the real thing has been right there before my very eyes on display by the front door.
Maybe? Maybe not. We’ll find out.
Hey Google!
