Three grand in mouldy purses
My great aunt died a few years ago, and as seems common for many old biddies (probably as a result of living through 2 World Wars) she just would not throw anything away.

Examples include emptying chips into paper napkins and squirrelling them away into her handbag (which ended up going mouldy) and using old newspapers as roof insulation (which also ended up going mouldy).

Anyway, when the crazy white-haired old dear finally passed on, there was a house literally FULL of useless old crap. Maggie Thatcher dinner plates, rubber dog toys (she didn't have a dog), People's Friend magazine from the 1960's, Mills & Boon large print "novels", etc.

Anything that wasn't completely skanky and disgusting was boxed up and shipped back to the house I was sharing with my sister, and stuck in the spare room. Where it stayed for 4 years.

I'd been away to uni, and my sister hadn't shown the slightest interest in sorting any of it out, and when I returned we went our separate ways, with her leaving me to deal with the room full of shit.

I started going through it, and found a Tesco bag of very mouldy old purses. I knew my great aunt had a predilection for collecting little things like that, but there must've been 30+ purses of various shapes and sizes.

Due to their decaying state, I very nearly chucked the whole bag out in one go.

However, I thought it would be wise to check 'em, just in case. I was expecting to find coppers and a few bits of silver, but nothing more.

The first purse I opened - stuffed with fivers. The second - stuffed with twenties. The next one, stuffed with tenners.

Each purse was stuffed to the gills with notes of various denominations.

I counted the lot out and came just short of £3,000.

I gleefully went round spending it over the next few weeks, until someone pointed out most of the notes were no longer legal tender - luckily the Bank of England would still accept them and convert to modern day notes!

A very very nice surprise when going through some very very mucky bits of memorabilia and tat.
(JohabMorelli is spenging merrily away, Wed 12 Nov 2008, 17:59, 3 replies)

When my grandmother died we found thousands of dollars hidden around the house.
She wasn't of the mouldy-type. She seemed to think hiding it would keep her long dead husband from gambling it away.

Yeah, she was a bit batty in her last few years.
( flirting with badgers What? It sounded good at the time., Wed 12 Nov 2008, 22:05, closed)

Nice Score!
When my gran passed away, my grand dad found a carrier bag in the freezer, stuffed with cash. There was a note inside from gran, saying that she had been squirreling the money away to pay for her funeral.
Of course, he didn't find the money until long after her funeral was paid for, but still a lovely gesture.
(w4I4q1O1 was hard at work on, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 8:53, closed)

and
... how did her will specify that her estate was to be divided up?
(haberman is singing in the changes, Thu 13 Nov 2008, 9:42, closed)