Treasure Hunt 1940

An interesting word game where alphabet tiles are placed in a pile in the center of the table. "Pieces of Eight" (cardboard coins) are distributed equally among all players. Five cards are dealt to each player, on the cards are a 'something' When the dealer says "Dig!" all players turn up their top card and begin digging through the letters in the pile to spell a word descriptive of their card. The winner is the person who spells a word for all five cards.

Scoring is simply paying the winner a "piece of eight" for each uncompleted card in your hand. Each person must also pay one "piece of eight" per letter that his longest word is shorter than the winner's longest word. If the winner misspells a word, or has not actually completed all 5 cards he must pay all other players 2 "pieces of eight."

Variants include setting a minimum number of letters for words or only allowing a word to be used once for any card during the game.

First published in January 1940, it must have been a hit. The second edition followed in March, 1940. By February 1942 they were on the 30th edition!