A couple digging outside their Wildwood, New Jersey house in July unearthed a few cylindrical objects they at first mistook for root balls. But when they started tugging at the edges, they realized it was rolled-up brown wrapping paper.
When they removed the brown paper from one of the cylinders, out came a load of $10 and $20 bills, totaling $1,000. The date on each bill: 1934.
It’s safe to assume that in 1934 or soon after, in the depths of the Great Depression, someone had buried money for safekeeping.
At the time, many folks had lost faith in banks. The Depression that began in late 1929 led to many bank failures. Until the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in June 1933, a bank failure meant any money you had in that failed bank was gone forever.
Even after the FDIC was created, distrust of banks lingered.
The cylinder of $1,000 of 1934 money can still be spent today. It is legal tender, and any bank would have to accept it.
It’s likely that currency collectors would pay a good deal more than $1,000 for those 1934 bills. Chances are (I haven’t seen the money so can’t be certain) the bills were either Silver Certificates or Gold Certificates, which excites collectors, as opposed to being uninteresting Federal Reserve Notes.
But no matter what, it will be worth at least face value, even after 88 years of burial.
Alas, back in 1934 that $1,000 had the buying power of $22,000 today. The money laid aside failed to keep up with inflation.
Nowadays, bank deposits are safe so there’s no need to bury money in your yard. But losing buying power to inflation remains a problem.
One solution is the federal government’s Series I bonds. These bonds grow in value more or less in step with the nation’s rate of inflation. The interest rates are adjusted twice a year, and you have to hold the bonds for at least five years to avoid being penalized for three months’ worth of interest. But the bonds are ultra-safe and will hold their value.
Contrast that with crypto currency, a fad much in the news of late. Who knows if any of these crypto monies can be spent 88 years from now?
Crypto currency can’t be buried in a yard. It’s buried instead in a computerized system. If you forget where you buried it, or lose the password needed to access it, it becomes irretrievable. You will not be provided with a replacement password.
If password replacements were allowed, it would make the system far less secure. Crypto currencies tout their security as an asset. Yet despite those chest-thumping claims, many crypto-currencies have failed. In May, a crypto currency called Luna failed. Each Luna “coin” lost 99% of its value, and it’s doubtful any value will be regained.
Like the failed banks of 1930, a failed crypto currency cannot pay back any of its depositors. All that crypto money is gone forever.
When a chap named Mircea Popescu, who claimed to own more than a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, drowned unexpectedly in June 2021 at age 41, his alleged Bitcoin fortune may have drowned with him.
It’s possible no one else can access or use the “key” to his account. Most crypto enthusiasts fail to leave behind a paper trail.
Far better would have been his putting the billion dollars in safe-deposit boxes in a bank. Even if one dies, eventually (though it could take months) that box will be opened, and the assets returned to the owner or the owner’s estate.
But of course, having money in a physical vault defeats the whole purpose of being able to brag about having electronic non-tangible money that was never issued by any government.
I don’t understand the appeal of crypto currencies. But if you choose to own crypto “coins” (how can something that doesn’t jangle in your pocket be considered a coin?), then
at least lay out instructions for others to access and distribute your money after you are gone.
As for that couple in New Jersey who found the 1934 cash? They’re about the same age as me. So, I’m heading out into the yard to do me some digging.
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