Realcent.org

Moderators: Wasn't certain where this should go - feel free to move if I chose wrong.....

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A little background information….

I have a small flock of chickens (hens), I run them for the eggs they produce – excess eggs over and beyond what we (wife and I) consume get sold to neighbors, friends, and co-workers. The money we earn from the sale of the excess eggs goes toward paying for feed and other costs of keeping the birds. A couple of weeks ago, I sold some eggs to one of my co-workers, Jack. In the conversion we had about how my birds are doing with the winter cold, etc, Jack asked me "if he had ever told me about the silver coins that he and his wife Jill had found in a chicken coop they had years ago?"

“Huh – what?!” This question got my full and undivided attention.

What follows in the story Jack told me – it took place more than 30 years ago. I have used pseudonyms in the telling, so as to protect the identities of the people involved. I have known and worked with Jack for over 25 years, and have no reason to doubt this telling. The pictures which follow are Jack's. I had/have no involvement in this story other than the telling of it here on Realcent.

In the early ‘80’s, Jack and his wife Jill moved to AAAA, a town located in the upper Midwest. They had lived in town for about a year, then decided that they wanted to raise their kids in a country environment, so they looked for, and subsequently rented the house and building site of a former dairy farm. Among the various building on the farm was a chicken coop, which Jill decided to use, for raising hens for eggs like I do, and broilers for the fry pan. It had been some time since the chicken coop had been cleaned, so the accumulated manure was deep and thick.

Jill started the task of manure removal and a general cleaning of the building. She had been working at this task for about a week, when one morning, she heard a “clink”. “Huh?” She dug a bit more, and subsequently uncovered a glass jar, with a package inside.

As Jack told me, it was the beginning of a perfect storm of events, as Jill’s parents were due to arrive that afternoon, and her father just happened to own a metal detector.

Jack and Jill got the jar opened, and unwrapped the package, which contained U.S. silver coins. Jill’s parents arrived in the afternoon, and were told of the discovery. The coop was long and narrow, with nest boxes and roosts attached to the long walls, above a dirt floor. The droppings from the birds fell and accumulated on the dirt. Jill’s dad put his detector to work – it soon began to show targets, buried in the dirt, beneath the layer of manure. They started digging, and uncovered 3 milk cans, of the style used by dairy farmers 50 or more years ago. The cans contained more jars (3-4 per can), and each jar contained packages of coins.

“Now what? Who owns these?” became the questions of the day…

Jack consulted an attorney. The answer from the attorney was “it’s a gray area”. The original owners of the farm (and presumed owners of the coins) was a married couple who had been killed in a car accident. The couples will left the farm to a nationally known charity. The charity had sold the entire farm (building site and crop land) to an area farmer, who had then rented the building site to Jack and Jill.

The attorney couldn’t say for certain, but his best guess was that if the find was taken to court, the charity would win. Based on this, they sold the coins for the silver value, then sent the charity a check for the proceeds of the sale. The charity in turn, gave them a 10% finders fee.

Pictures follow....







JD

I guess I'm just an evil selfish bastard then. If I found this stash in my chicken coop, that I bough fair and square, you can bet your tail feathers that those coins would be mine. At least they did not turn them in to police so they could sit in "evidence" for a while until slipping out the back one day and ending up in some cops chicken coop.

yep, nice story, As Ponce would say..."if you don't hold it you don't own it". I may tell my closest friend what I had just found but most likely I would not...loose lips sink battleships.

Jack's first fatal mistake was consulting a lawyer.

1) sell the coins.

2) if conscience is an issue, send the charity an anonymous gift equal to 10% of the proceeds.

3) live happily ever after.

Good story, but imagined Jack would be smiling bigger in the photo.

chicken coops were great places to hide valuables, as any noise or disturbance would send the chickens into a frenzy, awakening the house

you guys that detect old farmsteads, dont forget to look for where the chicken coop was !

J_Dodge wrote: The charity had sold the entire farm (building site and crop land) to an area farmer, who had then rented the building site to Jack and Jill.

There is your answer right there. Jack and Jill were RENTING the building site from a local farmer. He was the rightful owner of the coins. When he bought the property from the charity the coins became his.

You beat me to the punch!

What was the lawyer's reasoning? I think the farmer would be able to take legal action if he/she ever found out.

Also, the couple's next of kin would likely have a legal case. The couple's only clear intent was to leave the land and buildings to the charity, not necessarily the coins.

NDFarmer wrote:

J_Dodge wrote: The charity had sold the entire farm (building site and crop land) to an area farmer, who had then rented the building site to Jack and Jill.

Still, why then would the lawyer say that the charity would most likely win in court?

And whatever happened with that story of a couple years ago...some couple in CA, I think it was, found a can full of gold coins on their property. Might've been the loot from a Wells Fargo heist 100 years ago...did that ever get resolved? There was a thread here about it at the time.

Oh, I overlooked the RENTING part. My bad.

Morsecode wrote:

NDFarmer wrote:

J_Dodge wrote: The charity had sold the entire farm (building site and crop land) to an area farmer, who had then rented the building site to Jack and Jill.

Still, why then would the lawyer say that the charity would most likely win in court?

I don't know. I think it was poor legal advice. The farmer should have been notified. Anytime I have bought a farm site or farm land over the years the legal papers that I signed always have said and I made sure they said that I own the land and everything under it as well.

1. Keep your mouth shut.
2. Finders keepers.
3. See #1.

Good story! Thanks for sharing.

Maybe Im mean, I probably would have kept them.

Governments have escheatment laws where unclaimed bank accounts, safe deposit boxes, insurance policies, etc. become the property of the state if there is no activity for a certain amount of time. So if you have a bank or brokerage account where you do nothing, you probably want to get in the habit of doing something at least once every year or so. That way you won't forfeit those assets.

I know this is a bit off topic, but I felt it was worth mentioning nonetheless.

Rodebaugh wrote:Good story, but imagined Jack would be smiling bigger in the photo.

Actually, the person in the photo is Jill, doing the cleaning thing....

cooyon wrote:1. Keep your mouth shut.
2. Finders keepers.
3. See #1.

agreed, along with the "loose lips sink ships" counsel.

but that story gave me a good idea, actually two.

I built a woven wire paddock to raise a few lambs two years ago...for meat....I love lamb, but it was more hassle than it was worth, the money in sheep is in the fiber, so last year, I just sowed it to clover and some rye, limed it, etc....let the land "relax". I've came into possession of a large chicken coop, and i'm going to buy about 50 broilers and a few fryers, do a little OJT, I've never grown poultry, simply coz until a few years ago I tasted the difference between home raised chicken and store bought, which I had always loathed, just tasted nasty, but the chicken my neighbor sold me....it was like night and day.

so you gave me a good idea, my son is heir to this land, has been briefed into the stack, that its his, coz I don't know what kind of world that dear boy, 19, is going to inherit, and he will not starve, or not have means to defend himself. I aint playing.

I also got two outhouses, one that is serviceable and one we had put aside, so as to drill the well when I bought this place, so maybe reset the extra outhouse, and that might be a good deal. Not gonna use it to defecate, and YES, I do have indoor plumbing, thank you. Better have, the wind chill is -25 F, but the hickory is burning hot, Praise God!

one more thought, those dear souls that stashed that hoard in the coop?....much different mindset than these twisted days, with "cashless" society, and debased coinage, I-phones everywhere....and I even saw one video report that just curdled my blood, it was these about poor deluded 20-somethings, that worked for high tech that actually were happy to have a rice sized rfid chip implanted in their hand so they could open the locked door where they worked......they were HAPPY about that!!!

this might be off topic, but this is a clip from a film done in 1981, called "My Dinner with Andre",one of my favorites....anyway, Andre is speaking about the future, and everything he says, its like what I say, (except for the part about "invisible space journeys)....to me, it amazing how prophetic that was for 1981.

Guys, I'm REAL concerned about this Ukraine thing...keep your eyes on it real good, I just this feeling it isn't going to end well.

but a chicken coop?....that's GOOD thinking......an outhouse too.

listen to this clip real careful...its me speaking to you all


postscript...I just rewatched that again, and dang, it made me cry. i'm not a wimp, but it made cry. also my mother is dying. no not terminal, her eyes gave out, she's now legally blind, she lost both her mind and her will to live. day goes into night, and over and over, and sometimes at night, I find myself just kneeling on my bed, weeping like an old woman, begging God to heal her, show mercy to her...and I love God so much, why she is suffering I do not know, He does. Y'know, many people are afraid of death, my mother is, God have mercy on her, but He blessed me in 2008, out of nowhere I got strep and went septic, blood poisoning, and in the ER, I had some kick azz opiates flowing thru me, I told the doctors, "listen, I'm a good patient, but if you don't tell me the truth, no matter how dire, I will become BAD patient, so what's up?"...they said, "you're 50/50 right now, and guys it was Light shown in my soul, it was supernatural, I started REJOICING...oh yeh, and I was talking to God, I said, "Lord, if you want me to come Home, i'm yours, if you want to stay here, i'm Yours!!!.....right at that moment, supernatural, I was freed from the BONDAGE of the fear of death!...and oh how I pray He would reveal that to my mother, amen...sorry for going off topic,n

The baldheaded guy just sat there did not say word. when i try a deeper conversation the response is rejection. You can't mean that. Or off to different subject

That is the reason we stack an prepare.

Peace