Buried Treasures Found
In case you missed it there were two stories of buried treasures recently found. This news serves as a much needed distraction from the nonstop news coverage of COVID and politics. The first story was about “Uncle Jimmy” to practically everyone who knew him — died at the age of 97 on March 8 and left his stunning collection to seven nieces and nephews. ESPN wrote, James Micioni was born and died in the same place — a modest, two-story house on a hilly neighborhood in Boonton, New Jersey. He never married, never became a father and never owned a car. He walked to nearby jobs as a high school custodian and a chemical-factory worker, leaving his small, working-class town only when called to serve in Europe for the last three years of World War II. He was a die-hard fan of the New York Yankees, but also of Jackie Robinson. And he spent most of his life curating a treasure trove of baseball cards that experts believe to be one of the most extraordinary private collections in the hobby’s history. It has all been separated into 2,000 lots that will be made available by Wheatland Auction Services through three different auctions, the first of which will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday and span four weeks. Chuck Whisman, who owns the company alongside his wife, called it “a once-in-a-lifetime collection.” Micioni used to mail baseball cards to teams hoping for autographs from their star players, keeping a ledger that tracked every item he sent out. Shortly after his death, his nieces and nephews ventured into Micioni’s attic and found binders separated by decade and packed with autographs, including six Ruth cards from the famous 1933 Goudey set. Orlando, who helped to officially grade the cards for Professional Sports Authenticator, estimates that those half-dozen Ruth cards alone together are worth up to $1 million in total.
The second story was about a buried $1 million treasure chest that was found. People.com wrote, Forrest Fenn announced that the decade-long search for the prize was over on June 6, and that it had been found in the exact same spot where he hid it by a man who wanted to remain anonymous. Fenn has shared the first photos showing the contents of his buried treasure, which was found earlier this month in the Rocky Mountains 10 years after it was hidden. The art and antique dealer from Santa Fe, New Mexico, posted three photos that showed the bronze chest filled with gold coins, gold nuggets and more — a haul estimated to be worth $1-5 million, according to CNBC. In a third photo, Fenn appeared to take stock of the goodies as he laid out all the coins before him. He said the chest appeared darker than it did 10 years ago, when he “left it on the ground and walked away.” He said that some hunters have gotten within 200 feet of the prize, but ultimately walked away empty-handed. At least five people died while on the hunt, most recently a 58-year-old Colorado man in late March. Upon learning of the man’s death, Fenn told PEOPLE he “didn’t anticipate” the loss of any searchers, and that when he initially hid the treasure it was “an easy trip” for him — but now that a decade had passed, it would be impossible for him to go back and retrieve it. He said he left clues as to the treasure’s location in a 24-line poem featured in his 2010 book The Thrill of the Chase. He previously told PEOPLE that his goal was to get people to go out into nature, and to give working class Americans a shot at instant wealth.
I doubt Forrest Fenn’s family will be happy with him giving away $1.5 million and that five of the people who searched for the treasure died. But we all wish we had an “Uncle Jimmy” in the family! I know all of my baseball cards that I collected are worthless and I would have been much better off buying shares of Apple when I was a child instead of boxes of worthless cards. 🙂
Happy Father’s Day
