The Great Treasure Hunt of 1904

Paul Slade, a London journalist, contacted me in November 2013 about a nationwide treasure hunt that was held by the Weekly Dispatch back in 1904.
Medallions were buried all over the country and clues were issued in the paper daily. Anyone finding a medallion could claim a cash prize, with the most valuable being worth £50 (a fortune in 1904). Medallions worth thousands of pounds were buried in many towns and cities and the resulting treasure hunt led to chaos. In January 1904, a London barrister, Thomas Wright, came home to find a mob of treasure hunters digging up his garden. When he confronted them, he was attacked and, fearing for his safety, took refuge in a neighbour's house until the police arrived. Gardens were destroyed, public highways were torn up and general mayhem followed whenever the Weekly Dispatch announced their latest location of buried treasure. Men, women and children carrying knives, shovels and sticks dug wherever they pleased leaving a trail of havoc. Many cases ended up in court and the treasure hunt lasted for several weeks. Suddenly, on 14th February 1904, the Weekly Dispatch stopped posting clues and the treasure hunt came to an end. This followed the paper being issued with an injunction from London County Council's parks committee, which was backed by the Attorney General, which requested that the scheme be dropped immediately. Many medallions were never found and four of these were hidden in Plymouth. One of the clues to the location of the Plymouth medallions was issued in the newspaper on 31st January 1904. A reporter from the newspaper had recently travelled to Plymouth to hide the tokens and stated:
'Inky dark it was, and the rain fell in torrents as I turned sharp to my left from Mill Bay Station, under the bridge, and followed the train-line.'I was struck with the exceptional beauty, as disclosed by a street lamp, of the marble pavement along the front of a big building. But I could not thrust a medallion into marble, so I passed one.'Not far from there, but on my right, I perceived the unique sign of an enterprising tradesman – a sign that seemed to be mutely telling me that, but for the magic disc, I should have been listening to the merry frazzle at that very moment of bacon and eggs.'Soon I espied a church, also on my right, and nearby I saw a narrow and quiet street, leading to the left, from the main road.'Here, I thought, was my chance. Exploring the street, I noticed that the road was loosely laid in places. It would be easy to press the treasure under the stones there. I was just stooping to do so when a man, evidently late for work, rushed round the corner, so I pretended to be fastening my shoelace. After that, the street was never quite clear of people, so I decided to leave it for a few minutes, possibly to try again a little later.' Meanwhile I visited another street not far away. Opposite a large establishment which is doubtless deeply interested in the ‘big or little loaf’ question was a low wall. I looked over it.'

And so, almost 110 years passed without the Plymouth medallions ever being discovered. With the Second World War and much rebuilding, it seemed unlikely that they would have survived or ever be found. However, the story takes a strange twist and Paul was recently contacted by Alvaro Casares who had found one of the tokens while using a metal detector in November 2013. It was located just four inches beneath the soil of Plymouth’s Brickfields Recreation Ground. It's amazing that it had remained hidden for all that time and three more, perhaps, are still out there, although they probably have little value nowadays. The whole fascinating story can be read at Paul's website at http://www.planetslade.com/treasure-hunt-riots1.html