Mr. E. M. Bass, of the well known house of E. M. Bass & Co., is counting a pile of Mexican and Spanish coins and trying to decipher the various descriptions and peculiar marks on them. Mr. Bass and his brother own a farm near Carrollton, and Friday the money was plowed up by an old negro farm hand. The coins had been buried for years near the stump of an old tree, and their discovery was entirely accidental. The old man’s plow turned one of the pieces of money out of the ground, and a little work resulted in the finding of over $100. The coin must have been buried fifty or more years ago, for the most recent date on any of the pieces is 1838. The oldest of the coins is a Spanish 25 cent piece, which bears the date 1746. Many of the smaller coins have holes punched in them and look as if they had been worn strung around the neck of some person. The coins were brought to Atlanta yesterday by Mr. Bass’ brother and given to him to dispose of. The old man who found them promptly reported it to Mr. Bass, who says he intends to give the proceeds of their sale to him, says the Atlanta Constitution. Many of the coins are very quaint and there is no doubt many a collector of such things that would be delighted to get hold of them.
The only web mention of the “well known” E. M. Bass & Co. is a line item in a notecard collection held at Georgia College & State University.
“Buried treasure” coins are more likely to be found these days by diligent searchers with metal detectors and not by plowing the fields. I wonder how much “treasure” is missed by these.
