California Spill/Cache of Coins Found Around Winter of 2014/2015

[USAuPzlBxBob]

They cleaned up (the coins that is) pretty nice!

 

[numisport]

I for one am not amused by this sales promotion. Let's see if I'm the only one who dares question a social media stunt like this.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

I like your skepticism!

[thebeav]

I think it's either a re-enactment or they simple seeded the area to make the video. It would be hard to believe that these guys are running a video camera every time they dig up a 'blip'. That's an awful lot of video work for the many years before they finally struck 'pay-dirt'......

[USAuPzlBxBob]

Not knowing what to make of the video, just now I went on YouTube to see what other videos they've made.

Apparently they attracted enough attention to get CBS Sunday Morning to do a 4-minute segment on them.  In that segment the cameras eventually went into one of the guy's home, and his collection of things he's found is in a glass display case.  Interesting stuff that he has unearthed.

California did have a gold rush.  Fact.  These "Detectorists" research where to look based on the California Gold Rush, and then go out and put the time in, and do what they love to do.  The coins they've found were hardly the first gold they came up with.  If you find gold, you'll start to document, with video equipment, your treasure hunting exploits from then on, to capture the thrill of the experience to share with others.  Especially in this day and age of YouTube.

The guy with the display case… I have no reason to doubt him.  No one makes their own collection-display-case based on a ruse.  That's no way to live your life.

So, when I hear someone jump to conclusions that everything is fake, my first question is, "What level of confidence do you have in making that statement?"  If they say their 100% confident, then I'd ask how they arrived at that certainty?  A lot of time someone's certainty is nothing more than zilch.  (people often say things off the cuff, so that they appear like they are experienced)

My own true story on finding gold?

Bought my house.  Within a few years the shower drain was clogging.  Slow to drain.  I could tell I had to do something.  I removed the cover plate, and starting chipping away at calcium from hard water, and still it was clogged.  I pulled apart a coat hanger, and fished it down into the plastic U-section beyond where I could see, trying to find the bulk of the clog, hoping to snag a hairball or something.  I did snag a hairball, and something else, too.

Lo and behold, out came a gold chain necklace.  I couldn't believe it!  I cleaned it up and it appeared to be 22K gold based on the clasp imprint.  I calculated what the gold content was, was all set to send it off to We Buy Gold, but a friend at work offered to buy it for what the gold was worth, and I pocketed $206.00.

[numisport]

People didn't just lose Seated and Barber halves in several different spots in a California field someplace. Why would someone even have one in their pocket with them and be so willing to lose them. Why do they all look the same after they surface. Where are all the nickels and pennies that normal individuals would likely have. Its not a real well thought out skit is it.

[USAuPzlBxBob]

That's the mystery?  No thought out skit needed.  (Man landed on the Moon, btw.)

[USAuPzlBxBob]

But seriously… 

1. Hundreds of Seated and Barber halves have been found by Metal Detecting
   • They're some of the most common coins found if they're found at a depth that would make sense to a location
     • People through the ages have lost coins which then get covered over by wind blown soil, plant growth, etc.
2. Imagine a robbery on a gold mining campsite taking place
   • Plausibility increases of coins being lost in a localized area
   • No one wants to surrender their money; violence erupts
     • Things get scattered
   • Willing to lose them?
     • Maybe desperate not to lose them!
       • Just one possibility
         • They get thrown up in the air to hopefully be found the next day after the incident is over
         • But the victims don't survive the robbery and the robbers move on
3. Look the same?
   • Coins are round
   • Silver coins are silver
   • Gold coins are gold
   • Dates are different
4. Nickels and pennies are routinely found, by the hundreds, every week

Metal Detecting is a major hobby.  If no one ever found anything, how do you account for the popularity of the hobby?

[WoodenJefferson]

...one of the detectors mentioned that the coins might have all been together at one time and the land was tilled, hence the scattering. I believe this video is legit but then again I do not think Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, so there's that.

[Raybo55]

If you lick dirt to see the date........................?

[WoodenJefferson]

On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 6:15 PM, Raybo55 said:

If you lick dirt to see the date........................?

...yeah, it's called 'Lick-a-date' everyone can do this.

[Just Bob]

5 hours ago, WoodenJefferson said:

...yeah, it's called 'Lick-a-date' everyone can do this.

I am having to sit on my hands to keep from replying to this....