Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995                   TAG: 9504210022
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHOPPERS GET A CHANCE TO GO TREASURE HUNTING

Well, you wouldn't actually get $200, but you might get an Indian-head penny valued at that amount as part of "The World's Largest Treasure Hunt."

It's the second time the coin-collecting promotion has been sponsored nationwide, but this will be the event's first run in Roanoke.

Collectors from the Salem Coin Club Inc., which has valleywide membership, will donate the wheat cents (pennies with wheat on back), Mercury head dimes (made of silver) and V nickels (nickels with a V on back).

Every cash register in more than 30 stores in Towne Square, which is behind Crossroads Mall, will have a $5 bag of the rare coins in its drawer. But that's $5 in face value, which is what the stores will give the club in exchange for the coins.

Richard Evans, president of the Salem Coin Club, estimates the real value of all of the coins in the thousands of dollars.

"We're collectors, not investors," Evans said.

And Evans said many people who wind up with those precious pieces of silver, copper and nickel next weekend will never realize it.

"There's an extremely good possibility that they'll turn around and spend [the coin] next week. But somebody will eventually notice" the rare coin, he said.

However, not all of the coins are valuable. In fact, some are worth little more than face value. Collectors from the 60-some-member coin club will be staked out Saturday in the square from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to help people tell the difference.

"We want to put the fun back into coin collecting ... and recruit people as members," Evans said.