Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Lottery Isn't The Only Way To Retire Young

From February 26, 2014 news.com.au:
A CALIFORNIAN couple out walking their dog on their stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.
Nearly all of the 1427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them.
Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.
The article makes a strong case that because the coins in each can are roughly the same dates that this was not the proceeds of robbery, but someone who was stashing the money year by year.  I wonder if whoever did this died without telling his heirs where the gold was buried.

I have sent my wife out to start walking our property...just in case.

2 comments:

  1. From what I'm starting to hear you better keep quiet if she finds anything. The Feds are already lining up multi-million dollar tax bill that will probably keep these folks from enjoying any of their find without some fancy (i.e expensive) footwork on the part of tax attorneys and financial advisors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I saw this on a coin-news website. I though the historical sourcing interesting.

    http://mashable.com/2014/02/26/saddle-ridge-gold-coins-stolen-1898/

    The author of the article hints at a connection between a 1901 theft from the San Francisco Mint and this cache. He is a little hazy on one detail: the theft was reported as $30,000. The found cache has a face value of $28,000.

    But perhaps some of the original theft was kept/fenced instead of buried. Or maybe not all the buried coins have been found yet.

    ReplyDelete