You'd be suprised what you may find...

[trigger2]

So, coin collectors may enjoy this. I apologize about the quality, had to take the pics with my phone...

Yesterday went out to start cleaning the garage, and found an old box. This box had class notes that my grandparents had from highschool. And in that box, I found this...



w00t, another box.
Open that up, and I find some real beauties, such as these.


A New Orleans 1881 Morgan Silver Dollar in MS-65 condition. There was also a 1921 w/ no mint on it, also in great shape



A Denver 1952 Franklin half dollar. Great shape.



A San Fransisco 1928 Buffalo nickel, dunno it's condition but it's quite good (had a few of these in the box).



A couple handfulls of early 1900/late 1800 liberty nickels in all sorts of conditions. From perfect to barely recognizable.

You never know what you'll find.

[PFactorDave]

Nice find!

I was going through my Grandfather's basement after he passed away and found this...





He also had a pre-WW2 Colt .45, but I don't have any photos of it handy at the moment.

[Spikes]

Nice find!

I was going through my Grandfather's basement after he passed away and found this...

(Image removed from quote.)
(Image removed from quote.)
(Image removed from quote.)

He also had a pre-WW2 Colt .45, but I don't have any photos of it handy at the moment.

What a beaut! Get that baby polished up and you've got yourself a great show gun!

Trigger - Great Morgan Silver Dollar!!

[Dago]

What a beaut! Get that baby polished up and you've got yourself a great show gun!

And of less value after you polish it.  Of course, not all old guns are worth much anyway.

[SPKmes]

just as a note trigger...don't try to polish up the coins...I found some old coins a while back and thought I'd clean them up...went to an antiques place and the people there told me that coins are one item that has better value and collectors are more interested in their naturally worn state....obviously if they are buried and covered in dirt they need to be cleaned....just don't try to buff them up....

[trigger2]

just as a note trigger...don't try to polish up the coins...I found some old coins a while back and thought I'd clean them up...went to an antiques place and the people there told me that coins are one item that has better value and collectors are more interested in their naturally worn state....obviously if they are buried and covered in dirt they need to be cleaned....just don't try to buff them up....

Wasn't planing on polishing them. Some of them are completly worthless (some liberty nickels were unrecognizable and covered in a thick brownish coating) and I'm testing something a friend told me about with 'em. 25:75 isopropyl alcohol to water for a week, the rest of them I put in luke-warm water to rinse off the dirt/dust.

The alcohol solution seems to be working, but I still wouldn't reccomend it for anything worth any value in the off chance it does something...

[Spikes]

And of less value after you polish it.  Of course, not all old guns are worth much anyway.

My grandfather passed down a gun that is worth anywhere from $800 to $3500 depending on the exact model that his uncle bought.

[PFactorDave]

My Grandfather's shotgun isn't really worth very much.  I did some research, apparently it was a gun that was manufactured to be sold by Hardware stores around the country under the strores name.  Kind of like an Ace Hardware brand shotgun kind of thing.  It would have been relatively inexpensive at the time.  This particular gun was sold in a hardware store in St Louis.  I just thought it was really cool, with the hammers and all.  

My father has since told me that my Grandfather used this gun and a single shot .22 rifle (which I also have) to hunt small game when times were tough through the depression.  It wasn't unusual for him to get home from work and take his gun out to some nearby woods to shoot something for my Grandmother to cook up and feed the family for dinner.  Dad said they used to eat a lot of squirrels when he was a kid.

It's actually in pretty good shape, except for a little surface rust it's in good order.  It wouldn't bother me one bit to take it out and shoot it.

[texasmom]

   Very nice!

[Westy]

NICE!!  Best part of it is having something of theirs that they treasured
years ago.

Got a similar story (and pix somehwere around here) from about five years ago
when I helped clear out our grandparents home.  It was a Greek revival house
just south of Boston and we found a mid-1800s half-stock, smoothbore pecussion
gun, a late 1700's to early 1800s bayonet and a sword (circa Spanish-American War)
as well as a small envelop of coins. Oldest in it was an 1844 large cent, which dates
back to around when the house was built, and some later dated silver dimes.
Even bought a white's metal detector to search the basement floor (hardpacked dirt),
the walls and the outside yard but never got the chance to use it before the house
was emptied and quickly sold.