Boys "Catch" Peck of Gold

1920

Two Young Fishermen Bring Up Hidden Treasure From River.

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island. — The Pawcatuck River gave up one peck of gold to Claude and Clinton Azarmarskie while fishing in the rear of the home of Tristram D. Babcock at Avondale.

The catch, made in a grain bag, consisted of watch chains and ornaments of 14-karat gold. The boys took bag and contents to their home and Patrolman Curtin was notified.

The police believe the chains and lavalieres were stolen and that the thief, fearing detection, threw the bag into the river. The boys are hoping for a reward, and if the owner of the valuables is not found they will ask that the bag of gold be returned to them.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Uncle Sam Makes a Profit Minting Pennies

1896

Little Copper Coin Has New Lease on Life

The long despised copper cent has entered upon a new era of usefulness according to the authorities of the Mint at Philadelphia. The Mint has been turning out pennies lately at an astonishing rate, says the New York Journal. Ever since September 1 three presses have been working eight hours a day stamping Uncle Sam's design upon little disks of bright new copper. The average daily output has been 150,000 cents. This represents a profit to the Government per diem of a trifle over $130.

There is money in minting cents from the Government's point of view. The copper "blanks" are not made by the Treasury, but are bought under contract. They are turned out by a firm in Waterbury, Conn., and they cost Uncle Sam only $7300 per million. In other words, for seven and three-tenths cents he obtains material which by a simple process of stamping is transformed into the worth of $1. The profit on each 1,000,000 cents issued is $870.

Until within the last few years the blanks for cents and nickels were made at the Philadelphia Mint, but it was found to be more convenient and about as cheap to purchase them from private parties. The contract for producing them is awarded annually to the lowest bidder, and on this account their cost varies somewhat from year to year. These coins are considered merely as tokens, and their intrinsic value is of no consequence whatever. They are neither counted nor tested by assaying at the Mint, being weighed in bulk only.

One pound avoirdupois of the blanks for cents costs the Government twenty cents, and makes $1.40 worth of pennies when coined. In other words, there are 146 blanks to the pound. The blanks are shipped to the Mint in strong wooden boxes. They are extremely pretty, looking like so much gold when bright and new. In fact, visitors to the Mint frequently mistake the contents of boxes that stand open for gold, and it is a common thing for them to say that they wished they could be permitted to take away all that they can carry. This oft-repeated remark always excites a smile, inasmuch as the strongest man could not carry $100 worth of the blanks without great difficulty.

All of the United States cents are made at the Philadelphia Mint. During the last fiscal year 26,044,277 of them were minted. The production of cents rose three years ago to nearly 100,000,000 for a twelve-month. A steady stream of these little coins flow from Philadelphia to most parts of the country, though in some localities they are not circulated at all. But it often happens, as at present, that the demand exceeds the supply.

The odd prices fixed by dry goods firms nowadays have something to do with the unusual demand, inasmuch as they require the making of small change on nearly every purchase. Such prices seem to have an attraction for the public, and particularly for women, who are apt to buy an article for $1.98 when they would not pay $2. Then, again, the slot machines absorb an immense number of pennies. But after all the movement in favor of cheaper newspapers has done more to place the little old red cent on a plane of respectability than any other agency.

Very few pennies come back to the Mint for remelting. The stream of coppers flows out continually, but its history is like that of many rivers in Western deserts, which are lost finally in the sand. Nobody knows what becomes of the millions on millions of cents that are minted annually; they simply vanish out of sight and are gone forever. The phenomenon seems a strange one, but it is easily accounted for. Pennies are subject to more accidents than any other coins; they change hands ten times as often as dimes, it is reckoned, and being of small value, they are not cared for. People say: "What becomes of all the pins?" The answer is the same in both cases.

A Big Refusal — So the Gold Sunk to the Bottom of the Sea

1895

A Case in Which a Good Bargain Might Have Been a Burden

James Clark, of Old Town, Wash., knows a good story in connection with the sinking of the steamship Pacific in the Straits of Juan de Fuca, in 1875, of which the only survivor was Neil Henley, now of Tacoma.

Mr. Henley floated around for hours on a raft after the Pacific was struck by the bark Orpheus. With him on the raft was a man named William Sampson, who became exhausted and sank, Mr. Clark says, with between $10,000 and $12,000 in a belt around his body. The fact that Sampson had the gold on his person was known to Mr. Clark and a few others only, and it has never been published.

Clark and Sampson were miners together on the Yukon river, in Alaska. The mining claim was a rich one, and was known in the Yukon district as the "Three-to-One." It was so called because the party that mined and owned it, was composed of three white men and a Chinese. They returned to Victoria to spend the first winter, after taking out about $5,000 apiece in gold, and the next spring when they went to back to open up the mine again, they found that the flood had swept away all their machinery and they would have to spend a considerable part of the season in making and putting in new machinery to handle the placer deposits. Sampson became discouraged and he sold his share in the diggings to his partners for about $5,000 and returned to Victoria. The "Three-to-One" made money that season the same as the season before.

Shortly after Sampson returned to Victoria he shipped on the steamer Pacific, intending to go to San Francisco He put the gold in a belt around his body, as was the custom in those days. The raft on which he and Henley floated was in reality a chicken coop. Sampson felt he could not last much longer in the heavy sea, which rolled the coop fearfully, and he begged Henley to take the gold. The latter, feeling that he would never set foot on shore again, refused to take the belt, and it went down with poor Sampson to the bottom of the sea. Henley was soon picked up. The next day, though, he regretted the loss of his companion on the chicken coop, he also deplored that he had not taken the proffered belt with its burden of gold.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Grandson Finds Buried Treasure

1910

SAN FRANCISCO — When little Louis Osborne, the eight-year-old son of Lloyd Osborne, novelist and stepson of Robert Louis Stevenson, armed himself with his midget shovel and went out on a sand hill near his home here to dig a few days ago he had visions of finding treasure. This is not an unusual thing for the lad, for he has not heard his father's illustrious stepfather talked about without getting some spirit of adventure of the author of "Treasure Island" fixed in his mind.

So while Louis dug he hummed "Sixteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest, Yo! Ho! Ho! and a Bottle of Rum."

The lad stopped digging because his shovel had encountered an obstruction. Tested carefully the thing that resisted proved to be metal. Then Louis dug more furiously than ever. In a few moments he unearthed a metal box. And, sure enough, it contained treasure. Opening it hastily, the boy found 2,600 shares of valuable stock, deeds to city property, other valuable papers and several empty ring boxes.

Of course, the boy did not realize the value of the property, but he knew the papers must be worth a great deal or they would not have been placed in such a secure box. So he hastily carried his find to his mother, who turned the property over to the police. The papers belong to Augustus Imbrie, a wealthy man whose house is closed and who is out of the city. The police think robbers ransacked the Imbrie residence and, after taking money and jewelry from the box, buried it.

Captain Kidd's Ghost Sells His Treasure Farm

Trenton, New Jersey, 1919
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CAPT. KIDD'S SPOOK SWINDLE

Pirate's Ghost Induces "Suckers" to Purchase Farm -- Found No Treasure.

Trenton, N. J. -- Capt. Kidd's spirit is not a reliable witness as to where the redoubtable pirate buried his treasure, in the opinion of Sophie Sauter and Marie Blumer of Paterson and Fred Laechers of Elizabeth, who appealed to the supreme court against both the spook and his alleged sponsor, Daniel Balsinger of Oakland, N. J.

The three took a chance and bought a farm from Balsinger in May, 1913, on the strength of his assurance that Capt. Kidd's spirit had appeared to him in the night and revealed the exact spot on the farm where he had buried whole chests of pieces of eight.

They do not wish to pay the balance due now because they have dug up the entire farm without finding a single doubloon.

--The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, September 4, 1919, page 2.