I was once involved in tearing down an old house. In the attic, hidden underneath the insulation, I found a glass piggy bank of old pennies. I also found a rare old magazine and a few other minor treasures.

Treasure is not always things of obvious value, though. Hidden in the walls of that house was a treasure that at the time never occurred to me: copper tubing. I later discovered that the water lines we paid to have hauled away were sold as valuable scrap by the junk man. It made me wonder what else could be "treasure," and where else I might find it.

New Ideas On Hidden Treasure

Hidden in a warehouse in the small town where I used to live, was a mountain of old boxes. It was the leftover inventory of a wooden clock factory that had gone out of business. The owner of the clocks had let them sit there for at least ten years. Finally someone explained to him how he could sell them on Ebay, and he realized the treasure he was sitting on.

An old Mayan Indian we met at a hot spring in Arizona showed us how to find arrowheads and metates (used for grinding corn or mesquite beans) in the desert. They`re hundreds of years old. He sold one of his metates for $200 during a yard sale, but this may be illegal now. Check with authorities on this one.

I have hidden money several times in my life. Many people do. What happens when people die unexpectedly? The money and valuables they hid remain where they are until discovered. There is an estimated several billion dollars in hidden currency alone in this country, and who knows how much in silver, gold, jewelry and other things. Here are some of the places people have discovered these hidden treasures.

- Under sinks (money).

- Hidden inside the pages of books (bills).

- Buried in crawl-spaces (all sorts of treasure).

- Above ceiling tiles.

- Buried under the edges of cement patios.

- In walls behind outlet plates.

- In pump houses.

- Under floors in sheds.

- In old heating oil tanks (coins).

- Under rocks in highway rest areas.

That last one is a favorite hiding place for drug dealers and other criminals who need to hide cash fast. If they never get out of prison, or die, the money waits for a treasure hunter to find it. Sometimes you just have to look to find hidden treasure.