Picture journal of a modern cache

I know a lot of the old-timers and experienced treasure hunters will say keep it quiet and loose ships sink ships, etc.  I've been holding onto these pictures for 2 years and haven't had the guts to post them.  But I've seen a number of caches posted on these forums since I joined.  So here goes.  This may take several posts.

3 caps in hole


4 caps in hole


out of hole

going home with lucky bag

At home with the cache:

Bottles full:
 

Rolls out:
 

 

All the coins.

Quarters and dimes;
 

Canadian 50 cent pieces;


close ups;
 

Here's a couple more:

 

VERRRRRRRY NIIIIIIIICE!

Best,

Mike

Whatta Dig

I would love to hear the story behind how you found it.  Please?  Monty

It's a long story, Monty, and one you probably won't believe.  Where are you located anyway?  There are other people involved and I don't want to be giving away any secrets, especially to someone close-by.  There might still be a cache or two out there.
                                         Bob

Nice Find! Face value of it, if I may ask?

Now that's a treasure story waiting to be told, but I can understand your reluctance to do so.  Wonder what the history was behind it, though.  My curiosity is killing me.  LOL

Very exciting to see such a great cache.  Congratulations to you and the others who found it. 

Hope you have a strong safe and that your business card doesn't have your street address on it.  You never know who is reading this forum....and why.   

Yikes!!  You found my retirement fund! ;)

Nice cache...  Any idea of when it was buried?

Joe

$258.40 face in U.S. coins.  $23.65 face in Canadian coins.  I believe it was buried sometime in the last 15 years.  I actually found a coded treasure note in a jar buried in another spot some 10 miles away, which led me to the area where this cache was buried.  It just goes to show you that people are still burying stuff out there and there's always the chance that you'll find a cache too.
                                                      Bob

$258.40 face in U.S. coins.  $23.65 face in Canadian coins.  I believe it was buried sometime in the last 15 years.  I actually found a coded treasure note in a jar buried in another spot some 10 miles away, which led me to the area where this cache was buried.  It just goes to show you that people are still burying stuff out there and there's always the chance that you'll find a cache too.
                                                      Bob

Oh man, did you dig up grannies' rainy day stash?  I'm starting to feel sick now. 

TT,
        Is that the only scenario you can think of?  It took a lot more effort than granny could put forth, a whole lot more.
                                                                  Bob

If someone took the trouble to create a "coded treasure note" - I doubt it was granny hiding her stash.  If they hid one note, good chance they hid more than one...

They may be modern,but from the dates there still silver!!!!
   Super find!!!!
           Keep it up!! AND THANKS FOR SHARING THE PICS!!!

TT,
        Is that the only scenario you can think of?  It took a lot more effort than granny could put forth, a whole lot more.
                                                                  Bob

Hey, I can come up with several scenarios. But since you are keeping mum, how am I to know which would be more accurate?  And you don't give grannies much credit.   Be careful because NOW or AARP could get on your case.


I'm joking.  Please be assured that I believe if grannie planted the stash, she should have planted it on her own land - or run the risk of losing it.  I'm just having a little fun with you because you won't give us the story.  Relax, I'm on your side.  But poor grannie.....LOL

what a cool quest. Be my luck I could decode the message. I can't even follow a modern map. Thank God yahoo maps has directions wrote down. Now if I could just get them to add, turn by big tree close to the blue house go down 1 mile um 10 houses to the left. I can handle those directions.
But That is one awesome cache you have hope you find more.

Thank's for sharing. I always thought that when and if I find a cache. I would say that I am posting this for a friend. And then share it with T-NET members. Congratulations on your success.....Steve

Thanks everybody.  I just wanted to share some of the excitement I felt when I was hunting for this treasure and digging it up.  I still get chills and  goosebumps thinking about it.

T-girl,  Don't feel bad.  I couldn't figure out the person's code either.  Luckally, there were place names, street names, landmarks and other clues in the message that I recognized or could look up.  I couldn't figure out any X marks the spot, but I figured out the general area where the cache was buried.  Then it took a lot of thorough metal detecting of the whole area to find the cache.

T-Tales,  "Granny" could be male or female and I'm a member of AARP myself.  The cache was buried on fairly rugged terrain.  Granny would have to have been a mountain biker or climber to get to the spot, carrying a heavy load of coins and a good size shovel, then dig a 2 foot deep hole to bury the stuff, then make it back down the hill totally exhausted without falling and breaking a leg or worse.  When I said it took a lot of effort, that's what I meant.  It also took a lot of mental effort to make up a treasure code.  Maybe not as much as the Beal Code, but still it took a lot of thought.

I can't tell you the whole story, because I don't know the whole story.  I read recently about a person who buried caches of jewelry in different spots all over the world and then wrote a book about it, giving clues to where the caches were buried.  I think I stumbled onto something like that, a treasure game.  And there may be other places and countries, such as Canada, where the person buried stuff.  (The note started off with "USA,  ________, PA").  Why would the country be mentioned?  I'd really like to meet the person to find out what the plan was, but I don't think I'd let on that I found any of the caches.  This was just the tip of the iceberg, my friend.

W-man,  I think there is a very good possibility that there is another treasure code message out there somewhere.  Man, I would love to find another one.  Happy hunting.
                                          Bob      

Thanks tons for sharing and a big high five to ya. I know I would have been too dern excited too write anything down, but do you have any recollections of the technical stuff you could share, such as detector,coil, signal strength, VDI, depth etc.?

Thanks and CONGRATS!
Kevin

MXTswinger,

Detector used:  Minelab Explorer II.  Loop: the standard 10.5 inch.
Signal strength: Loud and clear with a double bleep.  Think of a high pitch sound something like "Bla-loop, Bla-loop."
VDI: None.  I use the Smartfind screen only.  The target crosshairs were in the very upper right hand corner of the screen.
Depth:  It was about 10 inches down to the tops of the bottles and the bottles were right side up.  The actual depth reading was only about 4 inches due to the large size of the target.
Also, the detector was pinpointing in several different places, but I didn't need precise pinpointing anyway.
                                                  Bob

Excellant finds!!

But just think, if you had just stumbled onto it it wouldn't have been half the fun.  M nty

great find, but i don't think it was buried that long ago. those styles of gatorade and powerade plastic bottles are fairly new. can you read the flavor of the drink? if so that could be a clue, since they come out with new flavors every so often. i think that cache was buried only a few years ago, tops.
HH
mike

Thanks for the report Bob. I'll "file" that somewhere

Skierbob, my hat is off to you.  Thanks for letting me rib you a little - paid off because you gave us a few more bits of the story.  LOL    There are more caches associated with this one, you think?  Holy Crap! 

Whenever you feel comfortable, if ever, please give us more info.  It's hard not to want to hear the whole story because when we aren't out finding treasure ourselves, the next best thing is reading about others who have.  We sometimes live our lives vicariously!   

Good luck with finding more.            Wiping drool from keyboard. 

Awesome cache  , and great treasure hunt story.
Thanks for sharing 

Jeez, What a great cache! Congrats!




Thanks for showin us!

WOW bob!  i think i would have passed out if i had come across something like that! thanks for posting it and making us all jealous!

Is there more besides what is in the pics or am I reading this wrong? M  nty

Maybe another time, Monty.  Not right now.
                                                             Bob

$258.40 face in U.S. coins.  $23.65 face in Canadian coins.  I believe it was buried sometime in the last 15 years.  I actually found a coded treasure note in a jar buried in another spot some 10 miles away, which led me to the area where this cache was buried.  It just goes to show you that people are still burying stuff out there and there's always the chance that you'll find a cache too.
                                                      Bob

Nice find Bob!

I'm guessing that it's more recent then the last 15 years though. Those plastic bottle designs seem fairly new ( the blue one in particular ). It looks like the new water/sports drink container. So maybe in the last 4 years?  Just a guess on my part though.

HH

WOW, cool story Bob!  Where did you come across the map/code? (I understand if you need to keep it hushhush)

wtg awesome finds!!!!...gregg

Was this on private or public land? I know you'll answer 'public', but I wonder why the person would have gone to the trouble of planting that cache someplace where they could lose it?

Gotta feel sorry for the person who just lost their cache....

Maybe they are a survivalist planting caches, preparing for the day TSHTF?

I don't think anyone lost their cache, rather planned on someone finding it.  Why else would the clues be made available?  Monty

Man, that's alot of loot.

I'm thinking about cache hunting myself.
I've always been a relic hunter, but silver and gold are getting more tempting.

Burt

That is an exciting find. Loved the read

HOLY MOTHER OF PEARLS...WHAT A FIND.  YOU ROCK Skierbob

[AWESOME]

AWESOME

Have fun,
Salvager

How do you NOT brag about that ?!?!??!??!?!!!?? Seriously, if you wanna keep quiet about pooping your pants when you found it, that's your business, but really !!

Loose ends:

gold fish,  Damned if you do and damned if you don't, eh.  Read some of the earlier posts on this forum about the dangers of talking about a cache discovery.  There's a certain amount of paranoia to overcome when you post something like this.  I'm sorry if there's not enough info for you.

Paul 1410,  The note was found in another wooded area adjacent to a public picnic area.  It was in a small jar buried at the foot of a large, split-trunk tree, just off a trail about 100 yards into the woods.  My detector picked up the cap on the jar, which was buried about a foot deep.  Here's a sample of the note with name changes, of course:

"USA, City, State.  PZ = Beginning of X.  M = whatsaname creek.  PG = on X high point on knoll opposite nomad lane.  X = bicycle trail.  B = drain.  Y = staircase to farland Ave.  C = freight railroad trestle.  H = dam.  ball = 'Sean'.  KK = 50 ft high.  polly = Edna.  bill = bob/kathy.  sue = Heidi/Terry.  toni = "Matt 'Nadia'.  P = wooden wall.  T = howard av bridge.  LY = path from and to recluse lane.  Dog = a crucifix and 'M'..."

Monty,  You guessed it.  I don't know how to do the link thing but you can check my reply on whitesid post of 12-13-06 on MD Forum and some of my earlier posts on Just Images.
                                          Bob

No, I completely understand keeping info quiet. But if I had pics like that, I would be posting them daily.............for a week !!!

Bob, thanks for the reply. This is simply an awesome tale!

I wonder if a meticulous search of either area would yield another map or cache? ;)

Cool story, makes me wonder if it.s a "geocaching" treasure.Have you tryed to convert your clues to numbers that would coincide with the GPS coordinates of the finds location?For those that don't know Goecaching is an on line game were clues to coordinates are given then you travel out to the site and search out the treasure.Usually the rules state that to take the treasure you leave something in it's place,or the hook noses leave a horse head in your bed (thats a joke) Normally they marked as "official Geocaching treasure" if the y are thou UN official are out there.

Cool story, makes me wonder if it.s a "geocaching" treasure.Have you tryed to convert your clues to numbers that would coincide with the GPS coordinates of the finds location?For those that don't know Goecaching is an on line game were clues to coordinates are given then you travel out to the site and search out the treasure.Usually the rules state that to take the treasure you leave something in it's place,or the hook noses leave a horse head in your bed (thats a joke) Normally they marked as "official Geocaching treasure" if the y are thou UN official are out there.

it would have made a pretty elaborate geocashe dont you think? most geo cashes i have seen and heard about are merely trinkets and keepsakes, not silver coins. however it got to be where it was its an awesome find!

Urban Prospector,
                           It's funny you should mention geocaching.  My coinshooting buddy found a geocache in the same area where the real cache was found.  He didn't know what it was, but he brought the whole thing back to the car at lunch time.  I told him that he wasn't supposed to take it for himself, but just sign the note pad saying when you discovered it.  I also told him that if he took any item out of the geocache, he had to put something else in there in it's place.  So he took out a compass and put in an Indian Head Penny, signed the book and put the geocache back where he had found it. 

                           Like I said, I never could figure out the person's code.  I don't consider myself a cryptographer, not by a long stretch.  But the street names and other land marks mentioned where enough to lead me to the cache area.
                 Bob

["X'd"]

WOW!!! What a fantastic "real" treasure story there, SkierBob! Congrats and a tip of the hat to ya Mr. Treasure Finder! Thank You so much for having the "courage" to post your incredible true tale here on TNet! Despite what some others have said or asked you in here, you have supplied WAY more info, than I would have or most peeps that I know, would have.   That note, I believe, IS the big key to lots more goodies Bob! Just the bit you've shown here tells me there are many and well"X'd" stashes left out there for you buddy!

 I'm thinking, maybe a "family" series of caches for their future. LOTS of mysteries on the note, but TONS of rock solid clues too. Take your time and you'll be diggin' up a few more in no time. I agree that this stash is under 4-5 years old, if that. You ARE onto something large here buddy Bob! No foolin'.

If you want, you can PM me and I'll tell ya a little of what I'm readin' outta your kool story so far, my friend. I'd like to help you a little on this project but I really don't trust telling everybody here, especially the ones that keep pumping you and then keep coming up with lame excuses for screwin' with you...I don't get along well with that sort.

By the way,I live too far away (Ontario, Canada) to be able to get any part of your score, so I'm obviously offering my help for free, because you are a Cool and valued member of this Forum and I love this story. Long as we keep it between us. ;)

Happy Hunting Bob...

LarryB

Nice bottle finds skierbob  I gotta tell ya though, I found a really big stash, but would never have the guts to post it. 

SkierBob,

Congratulations on the great find!!!
It is very cool of you to share the pics of your cache and your story with us. I hope you find much, much more!
If I happen to find a cache one day, I hope to share the pics and story. It is very uplifting to see what others have found. Makes me wanna go digging right now.
Thanks again,

Tom

Nice Cache, I should really give it a try.

WTG!!

Keep @ it and HH!!

Very cool cache story. It got me to thinking some( look out ).

1) The blue bottle is a Propel sport water bottle, a quick google turned up this..."Since the brand’s national launch in 2002, Propel has remained the best-selling enhanced water on the market"  Now if you found it two years ago that means at best it was in the ground 4 years or less.

2) Why 4 bottles? If the coins were dumped out of the rolls they would fit in one bottle much easier to carry 1 bottle than 4 being it is a hike to get to the cache site. Maybe the intention was to have more than one cache? The bottles are not that big I bet 8 or more could fit into a small backpack. I hope you looked for another cache in the area.

3) There was a geocache in the area. Think of the odds of 2 caches of different types in one area Pa is not short in places to hide a cache. I would check that geocache the owners name should be in it. Wounder if there maybe a geocache by the same owner near where you found the first jar with the way bill. Look the owner up on the geo web sites (the name should be listed there also) and see if that person has hidden more geocaches  . I would also check the names on the way bill with the geocache's onwers name and kin.

4) I bet the the person who put the cache there is not a happy camper be carefull.

You most likely thought of this stuff all ready but if not hope it will lead to anouther find for you good luck

WOW, cool story Bob!  Where did you come across the map/code? (I understand if you need to keep it hushhush)

I Saw a chace hunt in progress one weekend in the small community of Dalark, Arkansas.  AN elderly woman passed away and left a diary.   In the diary, there were entries about her burying over $8500.00 in cash and coins in several gallon glass pickle jars.  She mentioned that she hoped whoever found it was a child who could use the money to go towards an education.

When I drove by that property one Saturday afternoon back in the early 1980s, there must have been fifty relatives all over the yard digging with shovels.  I didn't see one metal detector.  To this day, I do not know if the cahce was found.  The house burned down a couple of years later so it is a vacant lot now.

What a nice cache.  I found a small cache of about two dollars in old pennies and a couple of dimes two days ago.  It was buried near one wall of our garage building.  There seems to be some other dig-it signals there so when I have time, I am going to locate the rest of the cache.  Most of the coins were early 1960s -1970s.  The two dimes were 1962 and 1968. 

It was not a find like the ones in the photo but I was happy to find them. 

I have some maps of large buried caches and one of them is along a creek that we own property on.  I have yet to find the cache though.  It could be in a wide area since creeks beds move right and left after floods, etc.

Way to go with the great cache find.  What a dig!

Cactus_Cache

err ah interested in a slightly used gold mine?

Don Jose de La Mancha

To Cactus Cache:

        I'm glad you enjoyed the cache story.  It is tremendously exciting to find a cache, any cache.  And the searching for the cache is almost as exciting.  I'm sure you realized this when you found your cache and I hope you can find more of it.  But, don't limit your TH'ing to just cache hunting.  Try as many types of treasure hunting as you can.  You'll get more fun out of it that way.  HH
                           Bob

I dont think they been in the ground for 15 years,the paper it not rotted off the bottles!! just my 2 cents

Hey HoundDog buddy, I was wondering the same thing when I first read Bob's awesome story too. Why not just drop those coins in the bottles loose? WAY more efficient. But, then again, maybe that's how he bought them always, so he just slid them in the bottles because it was easier?

On your second point, of tying in the geo-cache with Bob's cacher, I believe that is a VERY strong possibility too! Man, I'd be heading right to that old geo-cache to-day, and taking a picture of the whole log, in there. Mostly the first name etc. of course but sometimes a sort of "geo-caching" code, from what I understand, is also used on logs. Any part of that sort of code could correspond with something on Bob's waybills.  There were so Many coded things on Bob's that it almost seems as though nobody BUT the cacher would be able to locate the darn things, and yet with the peoples names on Bob's there should be a good chance that one or two of them would/could also be geo-cachers with matching initials, streets, etc. People from that area who don't mind walking for their rewards and lookin' for kool stuff ....

Great input anyway dude! Nice contribution to this terrific thread. 


Have a big one...


lb

Now this is my 2 cents worth of input.

It is my understanding that those plastic tubes were put into the bottles. Only coin collectors use those tubes because you must go to a coin store to buy them.

I feel this was a stolen collection and they were stashed exactly as taken and were buried to keep them out of site for a while till the thief felt it was safe to sell them.

From what I could see in the pics those looked like better quality coins. Not good enough to be graded and sealed in individual plastic holders though.

Interesting thread. After my first divorce I learned to spread my stashes out into diffrent locations. That way if someone finds one your not out. Also keep most of it off your own property unless by this time you have learned to hide it in sub chapter S corporations or L.L.C,s .

[Also keep most of it off your own property unless by this time you have learned to hide it in sub chapter S corporations or L.L.C,s .]

Interesting thread. After my first divorce I learned to spread my stashes out into diffrent locations. That way if someone finds one your not out. Also keep most of it off your own property unless by this time you have learned to hide it in sub chapter S corporations or L.L.C,s .

LMAO, but sick and wrong! 

hmm now that's an interesting cache find! WTG SkierBob!
Maybe part of some Geo-cache though unlikely.
Maybe Warren Buffet is working on a treasure hunt book/contest? *L*
anyway - great find! 

Very ,very cool . Makes you wonder what type of person would bury such loot .Do they not have any family to give it to or they just a little strange in their thinking. Any way it is your gain for sure.    Thanks for sharing.

What was the VDI reading? How deep? Nice cache!

 Those were placed thier recently.
you found some ones stash.
shame on you..lol    truth is though i would have taken it too.
 i would bet they were found on private property

Nice bottle find and they washed up so clean too.

what more can be said WOW!! nice job and congrats 10 times over.

At first I thought, "Oh god he's dug up someone's retirement fund!"
Then I thought "Oh god he took someone's geocaching cache!"

Then I thought, if it's not a retirement fund and not a geocache...what is it!!? People just bury perfectly good coinage on purpose for other people to dig up!?! How cool is that! lol

I used to do geocaching a couple of years ago and plan to get back into it again soon. But this is a whole new concept to me, lol. In geocaching you're not supposed to bury the cache, and also you aren't supposed to take it! lol you take something and leave something , and usually there's a log for you to sign/date.

Anyway , great find! Especially since there were clues, if there were no clues, I'd be realllly scared I stole someone's life savings!

http://www.geocaching.com/   

WOWEEEEEEE  !! What an awesome find. Gosh, how much fun was that? I just love the whole mystery thing and then actually finding something.....alot of somethings!! Way to go........What a great experience and memory for you!!

Happy Hunting,
Moon

ohhhh
so thats were i buried them.welp thanks for finding it for me.......

OMG!!! That is a dream come true! absolutely incredible!

It's been almost a year.

Did you ever find more?

Did you ever decide to write the basic story without details?

Hey Montana,

Good to hear from you, Jim.  It's been a while since anybody responded on this thread.  Coincidentally, I just got back from a ski trip to Whitefish, MT.  Had a fantastic time there and at Fernie in B.C.  Unbelievable snow.  They've had 360 inches already this year.  They've hit their average already with two months of the ski season to go.

Anyway, I haven't written up the whole story about the caches.  The one I posted here was actually the last one I found.  I have put together a little story about the first cache I found and I have some pictures of that one that my buddy took.  But I can't seem to get the guts to post it.  I realize how hard it is for anybody to believe it.  I think that all the theories people have come up with are wrong, accept for possibly one.  That was posed to me by a fellow Tnetter larrybass.  We both seem to think that the caches were planted for the benefit of the person's heirs.  In other words, he left a cache or two as inheritances for his neices or nephews, etc. to search for and locate on their own.  I've got a feeling that he might be really pissed that other people discovered his plan.  He put a whole lot of work into it.  But he shouldn't have buried the stuff on public land.  He had to know that there were people with metal detectors who could find it without knowing his clues.  Or, maybe he didn't think that metal detectors really work, like a lot of people.  Anyway, by burying the stuff on public land, I feel that he was donating it to anybody who could find it.  I and others were happy to oblige him.  The quest made for the most exciting 3 years of my life.  I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

So, I may post parts of the story and/or pictures from time to time, but the whole story would require a book.  I may do that too someday.
                                                                         Bob 

I don't get tired of reading this, Bob!  Your gain, congrats!  Three years is a long time but the payoff was worth it.  I love that you found it not too far from me.  Don't say too much, I actually might  know the area.  Nah, it's yours and you deserve it!  I have hunted an old Delco mill site and came home with only relics due to about 30 years of beer cans and trash being dumped on it.  I was pretty disappointed.  I would hunt with you anytime though.  Good luck with future finds.  Take care!   

what digging tool are you using?

Breville,
             That's my woods digger.  It's a Wilcox All Pro, stainless steel, No. 300.  It's almost 22 inches long with the hard rubber handle I put on it.  Here's another picture of it: (as you can see, it's seen alot of work)

AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

my god that is an awesome cache...

That's so cool and i think your right. Those bottles aren't more than 5 or 6 years old i don't think, especially if that .a propel water bottle like i think it is.

Excellent Finds!

Simply amazing!
HH
Baggins

I have a strong suspicion what you found is more than likely a "Prepper" cache.
Preppers are what used to be called 'Survivalists' before that word took on such a bad image.
There are a good number of folks who are convinced the economy is going to tank and the only real money will be real coins of precious metals. They are also (perhaps wisely) distrustful of banks, remembering FDR's confiscation of gold.  So this would be pretty much what-and how-they would cache off their "PMs". Away from home and in a semi-public (but difficult to access) spot. Without the key in the jar (which makes no sense to me) you'd probably never thought of looking up there.

Come to think of it, watching the financial news, I wish I'd bought a couple pounds of silver at $7-8 per ounce.