Great story about recently discovered gold coin stash in California

[CSdot]

Some dream of roaming the earth to hunt buried treasure. One Sierra Nevada couple didn't have to go that far. They dug it up in their back yard - about $10 million worth, in 19th-century U.S. gold coins stuffed into rusty cans.

 

. . .

 

A little brushing revealed nearly perfectly preserved $20 gold coins with liberty head designs on the front, dated from the 1890s. They ran back to the same spot, and when they were done digging they'd found a total of eight cans containing 1,427 coins - with a face value of $27,980.

 

Oldest from 1847

A total of 1,373 were $20 coins, 50 were $10 coins and four were $5 coins. They were dated from 1847 to 1894, and after sprucing up they shone like, well, gold - which fortunately never rots. About a third of the coins were in pristine condition, having never been circulated for spending. Most were minted in San Francisco.

 

Read the rest here:

 

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Gold-Country-couple-discovers-millions-in-buried-5266314.php#page-1

 

Who is in line already to buy some of these coins?

[johnny9434]

wow, thats a great story. i wish them well with there new found wealth

[KeyMan64]

Cool story...but SERIOUSLY?! They are going to sell them on AMAZON?! What the....

[Timely]

I was about to post it too.

 

Here is another link.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-couple-finds-10m-gold-coins-buried-yard-n38471

 

Pretty amazing story!

[erwindoc]

Id love to find something like that, simply amazing!!!

[CSdot]

I was in SF last year for the American Bar Association Annual Meeting and noticed there was a world renowned coin dealer right across the Bay in Tiburon (the exact same coin dealer mentioned in this article). On the day we headed over to Sausalito my wife and 7 year old daughter and I decided to take a 30 minute detour so I could see this fancy coin shop and maybe pick up a nice coin. Turned out to be a PO Box at a mailboxes etc type place. Big disappointment.

[jpcienkus]

What will this do to the prices of the coins in these series? Over 1000 coins previously unaccounted for have now entered the market. It will be interesting to see what happens to pricing. Maybe nothing, don't know.

[RWB]

Most are common date. About 50 are better...as I understand the situation.

 

Now heading to the backyard with my dog and a stick....

[CSdot]

I wish they had photos of the entire stash. I can't even imagine what 1,400 gold coins would look like?

[mumu]

Can each coffee can really hold nearly 200 double eagles each?

[JIM F.]

I wonder how many got the steel wool treatment.

[mtnstyne]

The story I saw already showed one graded by PCGS in MS66. I wonder how long they were really buried in the backyard to be in that preserved state.

[e1cnr]

They all got certified by PCGS and calling them the saddle ridge hoard

- it would be difficult to come up with 10 top pops feom any time in last 20 years, so I doubt if it i pot growers stash

 

PCGS press release / article

[Walkerfan]

Amazing!! I read it in the news today. I wonder if enough high-end key dates were found that will impact any of the prices at all.

[DaveG]

Here's a link to the Kagin's page that gives more info about the hoard:

 

Saddle Ridge Hoard

[cpm9ball]

I guess I'm just losing faith in some people in my old age.

 

I find it hard to believe that cans, which may have been produced 100+ years ago, would not have succumbed completely to corrosion and be totally eaten away after being buried for so long. Perhaps the cans would still be intact after 20-40 years, but we might also consider that a half-century ago, the numismatic community didn't have any national database for coin thefts.

 

I wonder if the advertising on the cans is partially readable? If one were able to read something like, "Maxwell House Master Blend", then the "story" would obviously be suspect.

 

Chris

[wdrob]

 

Perhaps the cans could easily date back to 1933 and a result of Roosevelt's Executive Order forbidding the hoarding of gold. It would be feasible that some old geezer buried the coins then bit the big one without revealing the exact location to his/her heirs.

 

 

 

 

[CSdot]

I'm still having a hard time understanding how 1,427 coins can fit in 8 cans? Just think about it? We are talking about the same amount of coins that in a modern setting would fit in three (3) US Mint Monster boxes (500 one ounce gold coins per box). If we were talking about those large "office" size Maxwell House cans, then I could see how they'd all fit, but the rusty cans we see in those pictures look more like 12oz soda cans.

[Nutmeg Coin]

Since the story is just breaking I'm expecting the sleuths to go to town on this one and get to the bottom of the mystery as to who was the original owner, through land deeds, searches of records of the area and so forth. Usually the rightful owner or their heirs should receive a share, not just some lucky landowner.

[comicwiz]

I'm still having a hard time understanding how 1,427 coins can fit in 8 cans? Just think about it? We are talking about the same amount of coins that in a modern setting would fit in three (3) US Mint Monster boxes (500 one ounce gold coins per box). If we were talking about those large "office" size Maxwell House cans, then I could see how they'd all fit, but the rusty cans we see in those pictures look more like 12oz soda cans.

 

Something doesn't add up with the story when matched-up with the photos, but in fairness I only see 4 photos taken of the coins in their cans. 3 of the cans do look like they couldn't hold more than 50 coins, but one of them looks like it could hold a couple of hundred if stacked right to the top. I wouldn't be surprised if part of them were found scattered outside of the cans though. Also, those photos could have been taken after the fact with cans purely for photo-op, and with the original cans being destroyed. We are after all hearing about this a full year after they were found.

 

[wdrob]

 

Usually the rightful owner or their heirs should receive a share, not just some lucky landowner.

 

I don't really see why. Maybe the person who buried them went out of the way to make sure that they never ended up in the hands of his/her heirs. They may have been terrible people; murderers, thieves, etc.. the list could go on and on as to why someone may want to leave nothing to their heirs.

 

 

[thehumantorch]

Fascinating story of buried gold. I can't help but wonder when and why they were buried - the story behind the hoard of gold.

[delta]

The latest coin date of the hoard was 1894, has anyone searched California newspapers for bank robberies from 1894 to say maybe 1897? Being so close to the surface, you'd suspect the stash was hastily and shallowly buried, such as by a bank robber on the run, whereas a serious miser would probably have done a better job and gone deeper.

[delta]

What's the statute of limitations in California for recovering loot from old bank robberies?

[WoodenJefferson]

If there was anything fishy going on here, PCGS would not stamp their moniker on them.

[comicwiz]

The latest coin date of the hoard was 1894, has anyone searched California newspapers for bank robberies from 1894 to say maybe 1897? Being so close to the surface, you'd suspect the stash was hastily and shallowly buried, such as by a bank robber on the run, whereas a serious miser would probably have done a better job and gone deeper.

 

It may well be that they were buried under ground at one time and soil erosion may have been a factor in being able to eyeball the find.

[Nutmeg Coin]

Usually the rightful owner or their heirs should receive a share, not just some lucky landowner.

 

I don't really see why. Maybe the person who buried them went out of the way to make sure that they never ended up in the hands of his/her heirs. They may have been terrible people; murderers, thieves, etc.. the list could go on and on as to why someone may want to leave nothing to their heirs.

 

 

It is impossible to know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys in the gold hoarders family, friends, etc. until real answers are solved as to who he was.

 

I don't see how the full confidentiality of the lucky finders serves any real purpose here, even in the case of major lottery winnings confidentiality is not a right.

 

It is surprising that someone was able to stash such a large hoard of coins in a high level of preservation, there are dozens of questions on this that I hope will get asked and answers ferreted out.

[comicwiz]

Usually the rightful owner or their heirs should receive a share, not just some lucky landowner.

 

I don't really see why. Maybe the person who buried them went out of the way to make sure that they never ended up in the hands of his/her heirs. They may have been terrible people; murderers, thieves, etc.. the list could go on and on as to why someone may want to leave nothing to their heirs.

 

 

I liked your earlier hypothetical scenario about concerns over being seized. In December I travelled with family and brought my metal detector because there were a number of beaches in the nearby area. While I was out one morning, a couple approached me and asked me if I would help them recover some gold that their Father buried on their land. The story was that he had found gold on the land when he was younger, and political concerns at the time he made discovery influenced his decision to rebury it somewhere. Unfortunately it's a huge piece of land and he didn't tell anyone where he put it before he passed away. I took their information and am considering returning in the summer but I have to work out the particulars before I go anywhere.

[comicwiz]

Usually the rightful owner or their heirs should receive a share, not just some lucky landowner.

 

I don't really see why. Maybe the person who buried them went out of the way to make sure that they never ended up in the hands of his/her heirs. They may have been terrible people; murderers, thieves, etc.. the list could go on and on as to why someone may want to leave nothing to their heirs.

 

 

I don't see how the full confidentiality of the lucky finders serves any real purpose here, even in the case of major lottery winnings confidentiality is not a right.

 

It is surprising that someone was able to stash such a large hoard of coins in a high level of preservation, there are dozens of questions on this that I hope will get asked and answers ferreted out.

 

I find gold/silver when I'm out metal detecting. I've found older silver than some of these coins that came out of the ground shining and in great shape. If we're talking copper then I'd see the preservation factor being compromised and more of an environmental damage factor in play, but gold and silver usually comes out of the ground spotless. The 10K stuff has a tendency to show some signs of discolouration or tarnishing, but I haven't seen so much as a blemish on 14K or higher, and the same goes with high purity silver (90% or above).

 

To me, the thing that makes this story slightly unusual is the way the couple handled the find. Normally, when a cache like this is discovered, it is squandered over panic and ownership concerns.

 

I don't have an actual statistic in hand, but I'd say more times than not, the gold is scrapped. This couple had the presence of mind to properly research their discovery, and that includes going through the motions of having them graded.

 

Apart from the unbelievable luck of finding a gold hoard of this extent and age through an eyeball find, that they thought through and properly went about revealing the find and their plans to resell is the one part of this whole story that is remarkable. This is coming from years of doing estate appraisals, where some owners didn't even care to do enough research on heirloom contents, so to see someone put that much thought into something they found is rather incredulous to me, but I suppose adds more lottery odds allure to this whole story.

[Nutmeg Coin]

Anyone finding a large group of coins like this probably would have done the same thing, but why Kagin's? Heritage Auctions would be my first choice with their top notch brain trust and experience, track record of maximizing value.

 

If the hoarder was a desperate person they probably would haven't gotten all high MS coins as there was no value difference at the time between an MS $20 and a VF one. The real mystery remains who was the hoarder, when was the hoard put there, why, what is the history of land titles for that land? It can be assumed that the person who put the coins in the ground owned the land, until we get further information.