Cleaning up at Grandma's house or rummaging at a house sale? Shake old books to be sure nothing is hidden between the pages. A rare 1911 Canadian $500 bill featuring a picture of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, one of three known to exist, was rescued from a pile of old books headed for a shredder. It set a record when it sold at a Heritage Auction Galleries auction in September for $322,000.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
CHECKING FOR HIDDEN TREASURES
Cleaning up at Grandma's house or rummaging at a house sale? Shake old books to be sure nothing is hidden between the pages. A rare 1911 Canadian $500 bill featuring a picture of Queen Mary, wife of King George V, one of three known to exist, was rescued from a pile of old books headed for a shredder. It set a record when it sold at a Heritage Auction Galleries auction in September for $322,000.
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8 comments:
I am a dealer in antiquarian books and the suggestion of "shaking" a book to unearth hidden treasure is a bad one. Old books have very fragile bindings and shaking one, can, and will do a great deal of harm. While looking for this one in a million treasure, please thumb through the pages carefully. Also when pricing a book for your next garage sale, avoid stickers, as they can harm a dust jacket, fancy decorative binding or leather. In 99.9 percent of the cases the book will be more valuable than anything superfluous found within.
Oh, how very well I know that. My grandmother never trusted a bank, and kept her money hid all over the house. When she got ill, she told my mother and I where her "stashes" were located. Many of them were in old books she kept in the attic. Yes, check those books, the old purses in the closets, inside the backs of non-working televisions...you just might be surprised!
My dad used $1.00 dollar bills for bookmarks!He had thousands of books, needless to say my mother paid her oil bill for one full year with those dollar bills, after he passed away. Love and miss him still Mary paquette
When I was cleaning out my parents house I found the first Christmas card my Dad gave my Mom after they were married. It was in a book that I turned upside down. It is from 1946.
I found a Silver Certificate Dollar bill with two (2) different serial numbers. I guess it was a mistake from the US Mint? I am wondering are they worth anything or just the $1.00? It is from the 1950's.
Just some FYI for those of you who have found some treasures in your home of value that you want to sell. Don't just think of "Fee-Bay" i found a new site that is like E-BAY started out being. Small, unique items and antiques that are free to list and super easy to use. It's called BONANZLE. Check it out here http://www.bonanzle.com/users/new
I sell the treasures i find on this site now, and It's a much better fit than being surrounded by the retailers on E-BAY now. Just passing it along ...
I do Estate Sales and often find money and jewerly stashed in pockets of clothes in the back of closets, in coffee cans under the kitchen sink, a lot of times in the freezer or refrigerator and once found a lot of money in the hems of curtains.
CLBinAz
I am very bad about not checking books and I really need to start doing a better job of it. Once I go to list them for sale then I check them very well however they sit in my house for months at a time without me looking at them. There are probably a thousand books in my house right now that I have not even cracked open. Hmmmm maybe I should start flipping through, would be a good way to pay some of these past due bills.
In all seriousness though what we come across the most is old articles, family photos, old bookmarks, receipts, bills and letters. All of which are actually neat finds but not really worth anything. It is interesting however I must say the little treasures that can be found.
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