Guest Story: Funeral Token Goes Home
This was sent to me and I felt compelled to post the story. Enjoy
I was hunting in Tulsa, Oklahoma near Pine and Peoria in an area that had houses but had been cleared. I had found several nice items in past hunts so I wasn’t surprised when I dug a silver quarter. The quarter had been smoothed on both sides and I noticed that there was engraving on both sides of the quarter. It said “In memory of Dick Bourland died 1873 and burried in Gravett, Arkansas–For his son John Bourland”. The last name I am not sure about but in order to tell the story I am suggesting a name.
I thought this was interesting because I had been hunting for 25 years and had never dug a “funeral token”. I place it in my bag and continued hunting for a while. I decided to go by Transmississippi Electronics where Terry Humphries and his mother Sylvia ran a detector shop. Sylvia asked me “did you find anything good”. “yes, I have something here I have never dug before, it is a funeral token.” I read it out loud “says ” In memory of Dick Bourland—-”. Sylvia made a sound as if someone had just struck her. “OOOhhh” she said. I took a closer look at her to make sure she was o.k.. She had this stack of books on the table and she was doing geneology on her family–The Bourland family.She looked up her relative Dick Bourland and they did not know when or where he died. In one dig I answered both questions and this was only the beginning because in the following months I received many emails and letters from the Bourland family, thanking me and getting me to tell the story over and over.
This story is almost mystic to me and so improbable and yet it happened.
And yes, I did give her the quarter!
Spirit of Giving: $1400 Gold Krugerrand
As a follow up to a previous post we had discussing rare coins dropped in Salvation Army kettles during the Holiday seasons, we have a new one to report! This time it was given to the Salvation Army of Carlisle, PA.
The Carlisle High School Class of ’51 was ringing the Salvation Army bell when they received a unique and much appreciated donation: a South African Gold Krugerrand valued at $1400!
Read the rest of this article to find out who paid far more than it’s worth to help out the Salvation Army and how many homeless people it may have helped feed during the cold Holiday Season!
Priam’s Treasure
Priam’s Treasure, a large cache of Roman gold, silver, and artifacts, was the result of excavations in the lost city of Troy. A man by the name of Heinrich Schliemann dissected Homer’s Illiad to discover the actual location. Archaeological diggings were already in progress at the site by a man named Frank Calvert although he wasn’t sure what he had discovered. Schliemann took over the Troy diggings from Frank Calvert after proving the archaeological site was in fact Troy. After his wife Sophie wore the “Jewels of Helen” to create public interest, the Turkish government revoked his right to dig and sued him for a share of the gold. Ironically, he and Calvert collaborated and smuggled the treasure out of the country. Some of this “Priams Treasure” was later traded to Turkish authorities for the rights to dig at Troy again and are now located in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. The rest of it made it’s way to the Imperial Museum of Berlin until 1945 when the Soviet Union’s Red Army removed it. During the cold war, the Soviet Union denied it’s existence until it showed up in Pushkin Museum in Moscow around 1993. A treaty was created to return the treasure to Germany but currently Russian museum directors are claiming they are keeping it as compensation for destruction and looting of Russian cities during the reign of Nazi Germany. Interesting huh?
Amateur Treasure Hunter Hits Medieval Gold
By: Annie Riddle of Salisbury Journal
Full Story

When amateur treasure hunter Dave Iles dug up a ring near Amesbury, he thought it was a trinket from a Christmas cracker and nearly threw it away.
But it turned out to be a survivor from the late medieval period.
On Tuesday it was declared treasure trove at an inquest in Devizes, and now it will be sent to the British Museum to value.
Dave, a sergeant in the Royal Engineers, struck lucky in January, within two months of taking up the hobby.
It was only his second or third field trip with his friend Steve Henstridge when he found the ring.
“I didn’t have much of an idea what I was doing,” he said. “I went ploughing off on my own, pulling up bits of nails and horseshoes. Steve was a few metres away…
READ THE REST OF THE STORY -> http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/8402441.Amateur_treasure_hunter_hits_gold/







