Posted on 09/19/2020 11:40:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Finding a rusty treasure chest full of gold coins is the ultimate fantasy for fans of metal detecting, and it seemed to be happening Saturday to a woman vacationing in South Carolina.
Angie Moore of Atlanta says she was out with her dad “experimenting” with a metal detector when it indicated something big in the sand outside the Marriott Grande Ocean in Hilton Head.
“So, I started digging,” Moore told McClatchy News. “We finally cleared the top of it off and ... it was one of those moments where you can’t believe what you’re seeing. The wooden chest had really degraded so as I attempted to lift it, part of the wood came off and we got our first glimpse of ‘gold.’
Divers found proof last year that a shipwreck 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina is the steamship Pulaski which exploded and sank in 1838, killing half its 200 passengers. BY BLUE WATER VENTURES INTERNATIONAL, HISTORIC SHIPWRECK RESEARCH AND RECOVERY. Seconds later, Moore realized she’d been had by a joke that was likely years, if not decades, in the making.
“We went from, ‘OMG, it’s a treasure chest full of something gold’ to ‘Oh wow, those are toy coins,’” Moore said.
It remains a mystery why someone went through the trouble of hiding a chest of play money (it was a foot down), but Moore says she and her 81-year-old father, Harry Moore Jr., saw the humor in it.
“Best thought I can give you is that we found a treasure chest!” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter to us that it had fake coins in it. It was a great find for us. And, it’s even sweeter to know that some family with kids probably buried it for us to find one day.”
It’s not far-fetched to imagine finding treasure on local beaches, due to the hundreds of sunken ships off the coast. Multiple shipwreck recovering operations are ongoing off North Carolina and South Carolina, and backers have reported finding 18th-century coins and gold watches worth thousands of dollars, according to McClatchy News.
Other oddities, including World War II mines and parts of space rockets, have also been found washed up on beaches in the Carolinas.
Moore says she was out Saturday trying to reacquaint her dad with a hobby he dropped a decade ago, and the chest definitely made for a father-daughter bonding moment. In fact, she decided to keep it and the coins for sentimental reasons.
“Finding this has absolutely just made him so happy. We will keep it for that reason alone,” Moore said.
She posted news of the chest on the Low Country Metal Detecting Club Facebook page, and learned she was not the first to find a box of something strange on a local beach. The South Carolina-based group has more than 1,600 members.
“I found a chest a few years ago on IOP (Isle of Palms), but it was filled with goodie bags for a child’s birthday party,” one person wrote on Facebook.
There was a British series on metal detecting called “The Dectectorists”. One episode does involve a previously unexploded bomb. The guy survived, but it does show the risk of digging where a war happened.
Texas is strange. We talk a lot about freedom, but have a law for everything under the sun.
[ I was expecting: “And then the government swooped in and took it all!”
They will when you brag about it by posting it all over the internet.
Just keep it and shut up. ]
Exactly!
It would be really bad if we actually obeyed them. The TP&W have some really moronic crap they come up with every year.
that is what I thought, and then I saw THIS.
LOL! At least it wasn’t a Rick roll!
“I was expecting: “And then the government swooped in and took it all!””
ditto ...
“Just keep it and shut up. “
exactly ...
Always important to start off on the right foot.
So I would put my real wallet in my front pocket and in my back pocket was a cheap wallet stuffed with Monopoly money and a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card tucked in the plastic window part where the driver's license would usually have gone.
Nobody ever picked that wallet but it would have been fun to have had it happen.
methnks ol Dad did some pranking before giving up the hobby and later directing the daughter to the site.
If he didn't, he'll be kicking himself when he hears the idea. :^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.