What You Find In PIanos

[Paul T Williams]

That's cool Paul,

The only treasure I've found is a 1905 Canadian penny (really large and 
copper) and a Indian nickle and liberty dime.  They were in a piano I got 
for free.  That was fun. Much better than a mouse skeleton I also found!

Paul




"Paul McCloud" <pmc033 at earthlink.net> 
Sent by: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
10/08/2008 03:06 AM
Please respond to
pmc033 at earthlink.net; Please respond to
Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>


To
"Pianotech" <pianotech at ptg.org>
cc

Subject
What You Find In PIanos






Hi, List:
    You've heard the story.  The reality of old age forces the elderly 
owner into a nursing home, and they give up the beloved piano.  The new 
owner buys it cheap to let the kids play on it, and calls the tuner to 
"make it play again".  The tuner shows up, and discovers a fabulous 
treasure inside.  I've heard a story years ago about finding thousands of 
dollars stashed inside an old upright.  As far as I know, it's a true 
story. 
    Well, now I've got my story...
    I got a call to tune an old Hallet-Davis spinet this afternoon.  It's 
in fair shape, a broken key, and needs tuning badly.  The new owner 
purchased it from an elderly woman, who had moved to Florida to live in a 
nursing home.  It sold for $100.
    The woman was a kind of do-it-yourselfer, and had investigated the 
broken key before I arrived.  She showed me the sticker wire, which she 
pulled out of the piano to show me, with the broken elbow still attached. 
We talked about it for a while, and I pointed out the nasty yellow mold 
which had grown up inside.  I decided to check the rest of the elbows, and 
crouched down to remove the bottom board.  As I did so, I mentioned in a 
joking mood, "You never know what you're going to find in the bottom of a 
piano."  As I tipped the board out, I saw a pile of elegant boxes stacked 
up in the bottom of the piano.  They appeared to be like jewelry boxes, 
except for the fact that they were larger, and many were in sleeves for 
protection.  I showed the lady what I'd found, and we marvelled at what 
turns out was a collection of coins. 
    There were many proof sets, dating back to 1970, of whatever coins 
were minted in that year.  There were commemorative coins, each with a 
certificate of authenticity and purchase price.  I think there were about 
two dozen boxes, which are pictured in the attached photo.  Well, I'd like 
to say that it amounted to a king's ransom, but no there was no gold, and 
the price tags amounted only to a few hundred dollars.  It seems that the 
old man had stashed the treasure in the bottom of the piano, and told not 
a soul about it (or the poor widow, suffering from dementia, forgot they 
were in there). 
    We laughed at the coincidental find, and she promised to return the 
collection to the woman who sold the piano.  The lady went online to 
discover what they might be worth, but found that they really weren't 
worth all that much more than they did 35 years ago. 
    I spent a couple hours tuning the piano, and left after promising to 
return to replace the elbow next Friday.  (Darn, I wish I had one with 
me).
 
    Isn't piano tuning fun?
 
    Paul McCloud
    San Diego
 
 
 
 
Paul McCloud
Service Technician for PianoSD.com
www.pianoservsd.com 
Created with free BlueVoda software:
http://www.vodahost.com/partner/idevaffiliate.php?id=9223_1_3_9
 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081008/5a07bcc3/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: MysteryTreasure.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 74077 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20081008/5a07bcc3/attachment-0001.jpg