In 2023, while cleaning out his father-in-law’s house, which dated back to the 1900s, in preparation for renovations, real estate agent John Reyes (USA) and his wife Elizabeth stumbled upon a treasure.
The family believes the house was once used as a holiday home. Reyes’ father-in-law, Fritz, and his brother, both German immigrants, lived there for decades until Fritz passed away and his brother moved out. Since then, the family has been cleaning up the house with plans to restore it for future generations. “They kept everything,” real estate agent Reyes told KTLA. He added that the house is filled with belongings of all kinds of value.
The cleanup adventure led the family to a hidden corner of the basement. There, they discovered loose change kept in decaying paper bags. Upon closer inspection, they found dozens of bags of bank coins. Reyes said, “There were banks [named] on the bags that I had never heard of or that no longer existed.” They then found dozens of boxes and several crates, all filled with coins.
A man hid dozens of sacks containing tons of cash in his basement to leave to his descendants; the bank intervened and declared: “We refuse to convert it” – Photo 1.
Initially, the coins were made of pure copper. However, the U.S. Mint switched to galvanized steel in 1943 due to the demand for copper during World War II. By 1982, the coins were primarily made of zinc, containing only 2.5% copper. Reyes told the LA Times that Fritz likely began collecting copper coins when the U.S. began transitioning from copper to zinc. He added, “They were German immigrants who came here very young, and they were two wonderful men who believed you should own things that held value. They didn’t believe in much beyond the value of precious metals.”
After confirming the coins were indeed copper, the family made a rough estimate, putting their value at $1 million. However, the question was, what to do with them? Real estate agent Reyes spoke with a local bank manager, who was visibly surprised. He recounted, “I showed her a picture, and she said, ‘I’ve worked with Wells Fargo for a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this. You can’t cash these. You’re most likely in possession of valuable coins.'”
He searched for coin collectors on TikTok and eventually listed the entire collection on the OfferUp marketplace for $25,000. However, they have only received offers for a small portion of the collection. The family has now moved the coins from the basement to Ontario, California, closer to Reyes’ home, and is awaiting further offers. The local bank has encouraged the family to thoroughly examine the collection for any rare coins. Reyes reluctantly agreed, telling KTLA, “You see, there are stories of people finding coins worth $2 million.” With over a million chances, the family may well get lucky.