Treasures in pianos

[Fenton Murray]

I was called to evaluate a spinet piano in a bowling alley, the piano was stored in a back room. The owner met me during the day and opened up so I could look at the piano. When I lifted the lid a string that had been pinched under the lid dropped down to the bottom of the piano. I removed the knee board and saw a foil packet with the string tied to it. 15 silver certificate $100. dollar bills. The foil packet could be pulled up and added to or subtracted from and the lowered back in place. The lady said the piano belonged to her mom and after she died they found money all over the house. She gave me one of them.
Fenton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robin Blankenship 
  To: Pianotech List 
  Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:34 AM
  Subject: Re: Treasures in pianos


  Things found by myself in pianos include:
  a shiny new 1918 U.S. Quarter
  an unfired .357 magnum round
  live mice, with nest
  pre-Civil War  dust, undisturbed
  part of a mid-1860's German postcard, used to shim the pinblock
  about an entire bushel of dead roaches, plus their "stuff" so encrusting the action that it was utterly unusable at that time ( I did manage to salvage it)
  regurgitated cream soda float
  various snake skins
  blood splatters from wounded Union soldiers
  USED condoms
  a large number of opportunities to do heroic pitch raises


  I'm still looking for the matching $140,000 in cash that was discovered inside an old upright by a tech up in Minnesota about 18 years ago.....

  Keeps one guessing, though!!!

  Robin Blankenship
  Matoaca, Virginia

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Israel Stein 
    To: pianotech at ptg.org 
    Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 10:47 AM
    Subject: Treasures in pianos


    At 06:28 AM 2/28/2008, Paul T. Williams wrote:



      The coolest things I found in a piano was a 1905 Canadian penny (big like a 50 cent piece and brass, I think) and a liberty dime.  pw 

    Then there are the tear-jerkers. One time inside an old upright belonging to an elderly lady I found an old photograph of a beautiful young woman (obviously herself years ago) with a man who appeared to be a "significant other". Or perhaps the "love interest of the moment"? Who knows. But she became visibly emotional when she saw it... 

    Sometimes the tears (of frustration?) are mine.There's the Stieff grand that I couldn't get the action out of for a long time - it just wouldn't move. I don't remember how I finally got it out - but it turned out that someone dropped a bunch of saltwater taffy into the keybed (in the treble, where there is a space between the strings and the rim). It melted and glued the keyframe to the keybed... Took a long time to scrape it all off..  

    Israel Stein 


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