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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have the opportunity to search for hidden treasure? To know that gold and silver were stashed somewhere and you were the one to be asked to look for and recover it? How do you begin a search like that? Where do you start? What tools and detectors will you use? How much do you charge for your service? And who will help you put it all together?

Since joining Chris Turner’s directory of TheRingFinders I have received a variety of calls asking me to help locate things like rings, keys, knives, pulleys, coins, necklaces, pendants, and most recently–Gold Bars!! I expect calls to look for the usual lost items but this call caught me by surprise. Right away I knew that I needed to call Chris Turner and ask him a ton of questions and figure out what my next steps should be. After talking to Chris and getting his advice I felt allot more confident that if the gold was there then I would have a much better chance of locating it.

56 pounds of silver dimes!

And so began my first Estate Search. The deceased had died suddenly and left evidence that he was prepared for whatever crisis that the government or economy would send his way. There were dozens of guns and ammunition and also documentation that he had purchased gold and silver. He lived a very secluded life and had his own water source and a large garden. And even though someone broke into the house three days after the man had passed away and rummaged through all his belongings we still felt there was a good chance we could find the gold if it was still there.

The first day we began our search in the house. We checked all the usual places people hide things and even places that would have made great hiding places but we found nothing. On day two we decided to look the outside of the house over including the yard and some of the sheds. That is when we stumbled onto an old rusty bucket of silver dimes! The bucket was so heavy that when we tried to pick up the bucket it came apart and literally thousands of dimes went spilling over the ground. You can just imagine our excitement and the rush we felt as we stood there and stared at that pile of silver dimes! I grabbed a five gallon paint bucket to put the coins in and at the end of the day, when we weighed the bucket, we had 56 pounds of silver dimes!

We started day three with renewed energy and hope of finding more caches and valuables as there was a lot more of the property to look over yet. We spent most of the day searching the sheds and garden areas thinking that there had to be more buried somewhere. After hours of searching outdoors it was getting really hot and we needed to stop for lunch and a much needed break. As we sat eating our lunch I got to thinking that the downstairs needed to be gone over one more time. (The upstairs apartment had been cleaned out by a cleaning service the estate had hired and all that was left downstairs was a lot of old paint cans, tools, lumber and the kind of junk that people normally have in their garages or basements.) After lunch we headed downstairs to give it the « fine tooth comb » going over! Not 10 minutes into our search we came across an old paint can that looked every bit the part of just an « old can of paint. » We pried the lid off and opened it up to find–there staring up at us were the tops of three money bags tied off and four rolls of what looked like silver dollar coins. Once again you can just imagine the feelings and emotions as we carefully pulled out the contents and laid it all out to count and take pictures! That « old can of paint » held over 600 silver half dollars–Walking Libertys, Benjamin Franklins and Kennedys, plus 85–1 Troy oz. silver rounds!!

All of a sudden those old paint cans had our full attention! Stash number three was located not 10 minutes later only this time there was a large bar of some kind in the bottom of another can and it was wrapped in paper. We thought, « Could these be the gold bars we were originally looking for? »

As we slowly pulled out the contents and laid them gently on the floor we were stunned to see 60 more 1–Troy oz. coins and a 100 oz. bar of .999 pure silver!! And even though it was not the gold bars we were hired to find, our hearts were still pounding like we found the mother load! And all this was found in the « junk » that was left behind by the cleaning crew!

That evening I called Chris Turner and as we discussed the exciting events of the day we realized that there was definitely more places that needed looking into. Chris said he would love to fly out and help us finish up the search and that was all I needed to hear. We invited Chris to « Come on down to sunny Florida » and the next day I picked him up at the airport!

We spent three more day trying to figure out just where the old gentleman hid his treasures. In our search we even found a book that was titled « How to Hide Anything »! We found old letters and photos that helped us put together a bit of his life and gave us some clues. It was neat to uncover key facts and details that helped us confirm the old gentleman had indeed bought gold and silver! In the end we were exhausted but very content in what all we were able to find. Like 90 pounds of silver and an experience that will last a lifetime!

Thanks again to Chris Turner and TheRingFinders for giving us the amazing opportunity to search for that which was hidden and stashed away. We may never know just where the gold really went. Did the person who broke into the house before the cleaners take it? Did the cleaners throw it out with the rest of the trash? Questions we may never have the answers to.

Mike McInroe, Proud member of TheRingFinders.com