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Woman Finds $3,000 in Garage-Sale Chair
Yahoo News ^
| 5/30/05
| AP
Posted on 05/30/2005 1:03:54 PM PDT by wagglebee
Linda Stafford has been going to garage sales for 30 years, and taking good-natured ribbing from her family all the while.
Now, the tables have turned.
Stafford has found more than $3,000 in bills dating from 1928 to 1953 in the bottom of a high-backed chair she bought at a garage sale for two bucks.
"When we found the money, they could probably hear us screaming all over the neighborhood," said Stafford, 57.
She made the discovery while trying to make room in her garage for more furniture. When one of her daughters, Mandy Rath, heard something rattle in the chair, they removed the bottom. Placed inside a compartment were two paper packets, one with $10 in coins, the other with $3,060 in bills.
Stafford remembers what she paid for the chair, but not where she bought it.
"I know that I've had it out in our garage for at least a year, maybe two," she said.
But, Stafford was not sure how she would spend the money.
"Who knows?" she said. "I might spend it all at garage sales."
TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
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To: tscislaw
When he was taking it apart to restore it, he found the center post stuffed with Confederate money! That just brought back a memory for me...When my brother and I were young we found a stash of Confederate "bills" in trunk in our basement. We thought we hit the big time. Turns out that it was some type of give-away from the mid-60's, I think, for Campbells Soup...now that I've past 40 my memory likes to make things up...anyway, we built a little wooden box and buried the "bills" in our back yard...that was about 1975 or so...that house was over a hundred years old at the time and is still standing...I wonder if anyone has ever unearthed that "treasure"...
61
posted on
05/30/2005 2:48:41 PM PDT
by
in the Arena
(Life may begin at 30, but it doesn't get real interesting until about 110.)
To: Man from Oz
My dad was a small time coin collector. In the 1950's one of his co-workers happened to mention that he had just taken a bunch of rolls of nickels to the bank to exchange them for bills. His grandmother had given them to him when he was a boy and they were all brand new buffalo nickels.
Dad almost had a heart attack.
62
posted on
05/30/2005 2:48:57 PM PDT
by
jackbill
To: wagglebee
I have a friend who once bought a collection of old medical textbooks. Hidden between the pages, she found bills worth around $2000. She then sold the books to some collector for another $2000. Quite a deal.
To: in the Arena
...When my brother and I were young we found a stash of Confederate "bills" in trunk in our basement. We thought we hit the big time. Turns out that it was some type of give-away from the mid-60's, I think, for Campbells Soup......You know, that kind of stuff brings in big bucks on Ebay. It might be valuable treasure after all!
64
posted on
05/30/2005 2:58:04 PM PDT
by
FReepaholic
(When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading)
To: nopardons
"And jdm, your figure of the worth if this currency, is off by a value to ten. This money is worth face value,or or a couple of cents over that; at most."
How can you make that assumption, when we're not even sure what sort of bills she found, i.e., $20, $50, $100 notes, etc.?
It was wrong of me to make the assumption that her find is worth $20 to $30K but equally wrong is to assume her findings are worth face value (or pennies more) when we're talking about currency from the 20s, 30s, etc.
I agree most collectors go for the "uncirculated" high-quality bills, but that doesn't mean these bills are in terrible, ripped up shape, worth only pennies more than face value.
65
posted on
05/30/2005 3:06:16 PM PDT
by
jdm
(Estoy En Una Radio Mexicana (I'm On A Mexican Radio))
To: SamAdams76
Mark my words, she's going to regret opening her big yap. But some fools just can't resist getting their 15 minutes of fame on the tabloid shows. Yup. Why would you contact the media if you found something like this? I found a $100 bill in a parking lot once, I guess I should have called the Boston Herald.
66
posted on
05/30/2005 3:07:17 PM PDT
by
SkyPilot
To: nopardons
"While it is now legal to melt them down..."
Charles R. Nelson, "Macroeconomics: An Introduction",
Ch. 6, "Money, Banks, and the Federal Reserve" pp6
67
posted on
05/30/2005 3:08:12 PM PDT
by
djf
(Sheep logic, or why sheep aren't mathematicians: I'll give up my freedom to preserve freedom)
To: nopardons
Furthermore, considering this line: "placed inside a compartment were two paper packets" there's a good chance the bills are in decent shape. The right compartment could adequately protect the bills from the climate changes over the past several decades.
68
posted on
05/30/2005 3:09:38 PM PDT
by
jdm
(Estoy En Una Radio Mexicana (I'm On A Mexican Radio))
To: tscislaw
Now you tell me...where's my shovel ?
We found lots of coins in that old house...My sister found a pre-1900 Morgan doller behind a set of built in cabinets my dad was removing...and we also found a 1900 Barber Dime and Liberty Head "V" nickel in the back yard along with countless "wheat" pennies and Buffalo nickels...infact, by dad purchased a metal detector to really discover what was in the yard...and wouldn't you know it...we didn't find much else...
69
posted on
05/30/2005 3:09:48 PM PDT
by
in the Arena
(Life may begin at 30, but it doesn't get real interesting until about 110.)
To: jdm
A few years ago, I went to an Estate sale, and purchased a 1904 2 1/2 dollar gold coin, that had been mounted for a necklace for "TWO dollars". It was in the costume jewelry case.
Just goes to show that even those who price items at estate sales can miss things :~).
sw
70
posted on
05/30/2005 3:13:57 PM PDT
by
spectre
(Spectre's wife ("America, land of the free..because of the brave")
To: spectre
"Just goes to show that even those who price items at estate sales can miss things :~)."
Oh yeah, I believe it. This happens all the time. Every day. People are doing their spring cleaning and they just want to get rid of stuff, so they're in a hurry to get it sold. So, so much is often overlooked.
71
posted on
05/30/2005 3:17:45 PM PDT
by
jdm
(Estoy En Una Radio Mexicana (I'm On A Mexican Radio))
To: in the Arena
Sounds like a story I heard a few years back. Fellow purchased ten acres down in the gold fields area of Calif, near highway 49.
Started digging out what was to be the basement of his new house.
Bumped into about 24 ozs of gold at the time.
Rented a backhoe, went to work tearing up the rest of his ten acres, and never found a nickle's worth more of gold.
72
posted on
05/30/2005 3:19:49 PM PDT
by
djf
(Sheep logic, or why sheep aren't mathematicians: I'll give up my freedom to preserve freedom)
To: DCPatriot
Could be silver certs, even gold certs. Possibly some US Notes (the old red seal) in there, too, but likely the majority are just plain old Federal Reserve Notes.
None of these are redeemable in specie any longer, of course -- just hope they're in top condition, because the only excess value of the bills is collectibility.
73
posted on
05/30/2005 3:21:01 PM PDT
by
SAJ
To: nopardons
These are used ( touched and worn ) bills and coinsAccording to Friday's Wall Street Journal, U.S. silver coins are worth 5.138x face value (worn or not); my wife has a bag of 'em hidden in the closet that she bought for about 3x face value. But it does gripe me that, at least in Texas, one has to pay sales tax to buy them.
To: nopardons
You can, however, privately smelt damaged coinage quite legally...not to give anyone any ideas, naturally. $10.00 in silver coin is so far below the radar as to be unimaginable in any case. Collector's valuation is apt to be worth more than the metal value, certainly for pre-WW II flying eagle quarters.
75
posted on
05/30/2005 3:24:08 PM PDT
by
SAJ
To: tscislaw
I knew someone that bought an antique dining room table that has a large post in the middle. When he was taking it apart to restore it, he found the center post stuffed with Confederate money! Confederate money is worth quite a bit today.
Confederate Treasury Notes
76
posted on
05/30/2005 3:25:12 PM PDT
by
Polybius
To: wagglebee
[ Stafford has found more than $3,000 in bills dating from 1928 to 1953 in the bottom of a high-backed chair she bought at a garage sale for two bucks. ]
Damn I have gone all day without a bit of envy.. UNTIL NOW..
I'm a BAD MAN....
77
posted on
05/30/2005 3:27:24 PM PDT
by
hosepipe
(This propaganda has been ok'ed by me to included some fully orbed hyperbole....)
To: nopardons
Not so. Get me a nice, clean (not mint) Morgenthau $100 from FDR's 1st term, and I'll gladly pay you $115 for it. Or a $100 Snyder from the Truman admin in 1950. Might even bid a bit higher for that one. David Kennedy $100s are very scarce, too (short term as SecTreas).
78
posted on
05/30/2005 3:28:22 PM PDT
by
SAJ
To: sharktrager
but you should at least leave a note or something....
Here's a story of a dead widow professor.
After her death there's an auction. My professor was getting started teaching here and decided to go for inexpensive furniture and knick knacks. Boxes and boxes of books from her basement study went for .50 a box. Anyhow, our professor happened to buy some of her stuff and on a whim bought a box or two of the deceased prof's old books for a buck.
He said that he took 'em home and didn't think about it for a week or two. Then he looks through them... each one had a bank note of varying denominations. Some were very old, larger and different than what we are using today. Apparently she had socked away money like this since the 1910's.
Needless to say, He hunted around like mad but the rest of the boxes were taken to the dump and disposed of....D'oh!
That's one of two Dead Professor stories I rememebr.
To: jdm
MAN, she must REALLY go to a lot of garage sales! How could you forget?!
My mom and I go to garage sales every weekend. At least 20 per day on Saturday and Sunday. You do remember the good buys, but not necessarily where you got them.
Many times, I will remember the neighborhood where I bought an item, but I can't imagine trying to find a particular house.
80
posted on
05/30/2005 3:32:28 PM PDT
by
small_l_libertarian
(I hope I'm not some kind of psychopath. - Chloe O'Brien, "24")
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