Gold fever seems to be taking over Nashville. Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers, my client, is giving the winning sleuth a 1/2 oz. genuine gold coin (you’re not likely to run across one on your own!) to either keep and save or sell back to the company on the spot. With gold flirting with $1,000 per ounce, there are some folks, normally unlikely to sneak around the city in search of treasure, who have told me they are obsessed with finding the coin. Disclaimer: I can’t lead you to the gold, so don’t even try…
If all goes as planned, this will just be the first of several Treasure Hunts sponsored by Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers. Of course, anyone can go on their own lucrative treasure hunt by going through their own homes and cleaning out their drawers of old gold and silver (it can be broken, twisted, it doesn’t matter because it’s sold to be melted down) and bringing it to the Cashville offices, 2528 Franklin Road, to exchange for money right then.
Here’s the article that Nicole Young, reporter for The Tennessean, published on Friday about the treasure hunt:
Berry Hill business launches treasure hunt
Gold coin worth $500 to finder is hidden in citywide contest
Somewhere in Nashville, a “gold” coin worth $500 awaits discovery, hidden in a very public place that’s somehow relevant to the city’s history.
The person who finds it has a choice to make: keep this coin or trade it in for the $500.
pirates-and-buried-treasure-hunt movie or book, it’s because it is exactly that.
Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers, 2528 Franklin Road in Berry Hill, is launching a citywide treasure hunt on Aug. 8. The reason, according to planners Josh Levine, Cashville’s president, and Julie Schoerke, owner of the JKS Communications public relations firm, is mostly because of the economy.
“Lots of contests have started in giving away $50 gas cards, but we thought it was much more fun to have a $500 real gold coin to give away,” Schoerke said. “With the economy suffering, what could be better than to win a prize that could pay some significant bills, and the winner gets to decide just how to use it, and they aren’t just stuck with a gas card if they’d rather spend it on utility bills or something fun that they’ve always wanted.”
Cashville builds on ‘gold fever’
Levine said that he came up with the initial idea by observing customers at Cashville, stating that many customers often come in to sell, then develop “gold fever.”
“I thought a hunt would be a great way to expand on that gold fever, and, at the same time, it would also be a way to get people to realize that they could also go on a treasure hunt in their own homes,” Levine said. “Sometimes, they have gold or silver that they don’t even wear anymore, and it could be worth as much, if not more, than this gold coin we’re hiding.”
At Cashville, it doesn’t matter what kind of shape gold or silver is in, Levine said. The metal is purchased based on market value. Currently, gold is worth about $1,000 per ounce.
For the treasure hunt, Levine decided to use a half-ounce gold U.S.A. Eagle coin, but that’s not what people will find if they discover the location of the treasure.
“We’re using a replica,” Levine said. “It will be an obviously fake coin. We want people to purposely find it and bring it back here instead of accidentally finding and keeping a $500 gold coin out there.”
Hunt will be first of several
If the first hunt is a success, Levine and Schoerke plan to do subsequent hunts and keep doing them as long as they’re popular, they said.
That’s music to the ears of Ted Clayton, a West End resident who recently found out about the contest through a friend.
Although he is not a customer of Cashville, Clayton said he’d “love to find the coin so (he) could become one.”
“All we read about in the newspaper today is doom and gloom,” Clayton said. “This is new and different, and it’s just positive and fun. Besides, who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt?”
Clayton, who owns Ted Clayton Interiors in Green Hills, says he’s planning to go out and search the minute the first clue is announced.
“I’ve already thought of 50-some odd places where it could be hidden,” he said. “This is such a breath of fresh air in these economic times. It brings new meaning to ‘there’s gold hidden in them there hills.’ ”
And the first clue is . . .
Come out from the air conditioned cold.
Brave the heat to find a token of gold.
For over 100 years this is where Nashvillians go when the days are sunny.
Go there to find your money.
Bring the token to Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers on Franklin Road
and there redeem the token for gold.
RULES FOR THE TREASURE HUNT:
• Winner must be 18 years or older.
• No purchase is necessary to win.
• Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers employees and their families are not eligible to win
• To win, one must find the replica of the gold coin using the clues on the Cashville Gold & Silver Web site, www.cashvillegold.com. (Clues will be added every few days until the prize is uncovered).
• The treasure (gold coin replica) will be hidden in a public area that does not require any sort of trespassing on private property, and does not require tampering with or damaging nature or property.
• The coin will be hidden not higher than 4 feet off the ground and will not be buried.
• The winner must take a photo of himself or herself at the location holding the coin where he or she found it.
• The winner must come to Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers, 2528 Franklin Road, during business hours, which are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, to receive the real gold coin valued at $500.
•The winner can choose to keep it or to sell it back on the spot and receive $500 cash.
• If there is a dispute, Cashville Gold & Silver Buyers will have sole discretion over naming the winner.
• Winner will be announced at the conclusion of the contest.
