Before starting my yard renovation, I want to go over the property with a metal detector. It’s anyone’s guess what might be lurking beneath the surface – maybe even hidden money or gold! There have been multiple accounts of people finding valuables on their land, like the California man who discovered buried gold coins in cans while he was mowing his lawn. A recent story from South Jersey will have you reconsidering your property and looking for any hidden valuables that may be waiting to be found.

In a surprising discovery, this Jersey couple found money that had been buried underground for almost one hundred years – during the time of the Great Depression in the 1930s. This couple got extremely lucky when they found an old time capsule filled with cash. They not only profited from the money at its face value, but were also able to sell some of it to collectors for much more than that.

Rich and Suzanne Gilson uncovered a massive haul of cash in their front yard in July 2022. They would not have found the money unless they were planning to excavate their yard. But because they were looking to improve their property, they discovered great buried treasures in the form of old money.

As Richard dug, he discovered some glass. At first, he thought it was buried in the yard, so he carefully removed the dirt around it. He then found what looked like root balls. However, upon further inspection, he realized that they were not root balls, but wads of money wrapped in burlap. There were two such wads of money that had been in the glass jar which broke from being underground for so many years.

After Rich and Suzanne collected the money, they found that it contained $1,000 in cash. The bills all had date “1934” posted on them.

If you had $2,000 in 1934, it would have been worth a lot less than that same amount is today. If the South Jersey couple had found their money today, it would have been worth around $40,000.

The Gilsons became very curious about who buried the money. They did some digging (literally) and discovered the truth about their property from the 1930s. The man who buried the cash was James Dempsey. He instructed his daughter to bury the money back during the Great Depression as a way to protect their savings.

The family buried the money, forgot about it, and then lost it–never to reclaim their hidden treasure. Now, the Gilsons have got the wealth.