Treasure in the Cellar: A Tale of Gold in Depression-Era Baltimore

by Leonard Augsburger

Coin collectors and enthusiasts have long been familiar with the story of two boys who unearthed a fortune in gold coins while playing in a Baltimore basement in 1934. But the rest of the story trailed off to a few odd details. One of the boys died young, the other ran into trouble with the law. No one seemed to know more. A lifelong coin collector, Leonard Augsburger was determined to uncover the rest of the story. What happened to the kids? The gold? Who buried it in the first place? Meticulously researched, Treasure in the Cellar delves into the lives of the boys and their families, recreates the hours at the police station after the boys reported what they found, and describes months of courtroom drama as descendents of several former property owners came forward, each claiming the fortune for themselves.

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2008

About the author

Leonard Augsburger is author of Treasure in the Cellar, the story of the 1934 Baltimore gold hoard. With Joel J. Orosz he wrote The Secret History of the First U. S. Mint (NLG Book-of-the-Year 2011). He also co-authored Truth Seeker: The Life of Eric P. Eric Newman with Burdette and Orosz. This won the 2016 NLG Award for "Book-of-the-year". Co-author with Orosz and Smith of 1792: Birth of a Nation's Coinage (2017) (NLG Book-of-the-Year 2017).

Reviews

[Jeremy Vetock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great start setting the scene and finding the gold, but as the treasure got bogged down in legal proceedings, so did the writing. As various claimants put in their oars everything got slow, tedious, and confusing. Whereas writers like Bill Bryson can turn technical points into easy to understand language, this author got muddled. Still worth a read, just could’ve been better