A Guide to Finding Treasure

Here are some more tips on finding treasure, including some places to look that may not have occurred to you. For example, have you ever noticed that lamp bases are usually hollow? That space makes for a good place to stuff some bills, secret love letters, or valuables. If you have any old lamps in your house, including any you might have bought at a thrift store, you might want to look inside. Here are some other possibilities...

Under Floor Boards

Once a favorite place to hide money, this is less common now that boards are affixed more tightly or covered by other flooring materials. Still, if you have a metal detector that can distinguish between nails and larger items, you might pass it over any old floors. Figure out which way the joists run - they have the larger nails. Run the detector parallel to and between them to search for "other" metal.

In Heating Oil Tanks

I have seen more than one old fuel oil tank behind a house or even in a basement (I used to sell real estate). People switch over to cheaper natural gas heat without ever getting rid of the oil tanks they have - which are then sometimes used as hiding places. Look through the opening on top with a flashlight, or shake them to see if there is anything inside.

Holes In Trees

A popular choice with children, adults tend to worry about what the squirrels and other animals might do to the things they could stash in a tree, but who knows? It can't hurt to shine a flashlight into a hole in an old oak tree (or maybe it could hurt - watch out for those squirrels!).

Under Sinks

Another common hiding place in the past, there is sometimes a space under the cupboard the sink sits on. False pipes have been used to hide things as well. Check all the plumbing under there to see if it actually connects to the drain pipe.

Walls Behind Electrical Outlets

Removing an electrical outlet to hide things in the wall is easy, which explains why this has been (and may still be) a common place to stash money, jewelry and other things. Outlet boxes may be nailed firmly to the studs, but the drywall is often not cut tight around them, and most plate covers have just one screw, so it would take just a minute to remove the cover and see if anything might be visible in the wall next to the box.

Pump Houses

Pump houses were a common hiding place at one time. Some treasure hunters have reported that they've found more than one with a false pipe inside. Such "pipes to nowhere" were pounded into the ground near other plumbing, after being filled with silver coins or other money.

Old Cars

For many people a car is like a second home, as evidenced by the food and clothing you see piled up in some vehicles. A car - like a home - presents many opportunities to hide cash and valuables. For example, I used to keep an emergency $20-bill tucked into the springs underneath the driver's seat of my van. Now, did I remember to remove that when I sold the van? Hmm...

I used to have tools in the engine compartment of a car I owned, safely strapped in there and hidden. Though not that valuable, they might be if you found them in a really old car. The trunk is a natural hiding place, of course, and I have heard that people sometimes keep cash, credit cards and clothing there to be used for secret affairs they're having. People die without telling anyone about stashes like these.

An interesting story I read about finding treasure involved $6,000 in cash inside the back seat of an old car in a salvage yard. The treasure hunter who found the money had trained a hound dog to sniff out old currency, and on a walk through an old junkyard one day (treasure hunters take such walks), the dog circled a wrecked car and started to bark, leading the man to the hidden money.