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Treasure Hunters antique show will be at the Quality Hotel in Houma today through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“The Treasure Hunter show has been to Houma about six times since 2008,” said Matthew Enright, vice president of THR & Associates, buyers of precious metals, coins and antiquities. “We average about 400 people throughout the week when we stop in the area.”
The Treasure Hunters is one of the largest purchasing organizations in the world and looks at common items such as coins, paper currency and musical instruments, among other things.
Those looking to get rid of odd and unused or tucked away items at home may just find their pockets a little heavier after a visit to the show.
“The biggest payout for we’ve had at our Houma show was for a coin transaction,” Enright said. “A woman came in with some Peace silver dollars, a U.S. dollar coin minted from 1921 to 1928, and again in 1934 and 1935, and some Morgan silver dollars, another U.S. dollar coin that was minted many times between 1878 to 1921.We paid her right at $3,200 for the coins.”
Among the show’s more usual hauls from the area include a 1951 Martin acoustic, which was picked up at last year’s event, an Ames Civil War sword, and a few German daggers from World War II.
According to Enright, the show sees many common items that people would otherwise be in a box labeled, “give away,” things such as unworn, mismatched and even broken jewelry.
“We encourage folks to bring in their old jewelry that just sits on their dresser at home,” Enright said. “We once took a pile of 14-karat gold jewelry off a visitor’s hands and they walked away with a check for $900.”
At a typical show, the Treasure Hunters see items ranging from coins and paper currency issued prior to 1970, toys, dolls, trains, vintage jewelry, old and modern musical instruments, war memorabilia, gold and silver jewelry, costume jewelry, comic books, advertising memorabilia, swords, knives, daggers and the unusual.
“This event is characterized by what the community brings in,” says Enright. “I have a lot of folks ask me what this what this show is all about, and to be honest, it is determined by the items brought in that particular week; it keeps every event unique and interesting to say the least.”
As the Treasure Hunters see as many uncommon items as they do the classics, they have to be quickly prepared to figure out what exactly they are looking at. Back in Springfield, Ill., at their corporate headquarters, the company has an extensive research department ready to do some digging for certain items.
“We don’t hesitate to involve our research department to get questions answered about certain pieces, and that enables us to make the best possible offers to our customers,” he said.
