That $3 garage sale lamp had a 1964 quarter taped inside the base. Who does that?

I was killing time at an estate sale in Tacoma last Saturday, just poking through a box of old lamps. One of them was this ugly brass thing with a cracked shade, priced at $3. I bought it mostly because I felt bad for it, you know? Got it home and started taking the base off to clean it up, and there it was. A silver quarter from 1964 taped to the inside with yellowed masking tape. I looked it up online and apparently that year had a higher silver content, so it's worth like $5 or $6 on its own. Still, I can't figure out why someone would hide it in a lamp like that. Has anyone else found money or objects stashed inside thrift store stuff? It's kinda creepy but also cool.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_susan19d ago

Read somewhere that people hid emergency money in weird spots during the Depression era, so maybe that's just a leftover habit lol.

elliotm7018d ago

Expand on that. My grandma had a hollowed out book she kept cash in until she died in the 90s, and I always figured it was just a quirk. Seeing how many people did the same thing makes me think it was a smart way to keep a little cushion when banks weren't trusted.

johnson.faith5d ago

That hollowed out book thing really makes you wonder how many regular folks did stuff like that back then.