Ten million dollars worth of gold coins recently found by a California couple have been linked to a bank heist at the San Francisco Mint, way back in 1899. An old newspaper clipping of the heist was found by a collector, and the amount found was apparently about the same amount of gold that was stolen. Read about how the couple found the coins here.
The couple must have passed that same can in the ground hundreds of times. But this time, the oddly shaped can must have caught their attention. They told ABC News, “I saw an old can sticking out of the ground on a trail that we had walked almost every day for many, many years. I was looking down in the right spot and saw the side of the can. I bent over to scrape some moss off and noticed that it had both ends on it,” they said.It was the first of five cans to be unearthed, each packed with gold coins.”
In a beautiful gesture, the couple plans on giving back to their community, donating much of their newfound wealth to the arts, to those in need, and to causes that they believe in. Their actions are profoundly generous. “It would have been quite a pity not to share the magnitude of our find. We’d like to help other people with some of this money. There are people in our community who are hungry and don’t have enough to eat.” They finish by saying that this find has given them the opportunity to give back.
The two people who found the treasure of the 1,427 uncirculated mint-condition gold coins want to remain anonymous. The value of the “Saddle Ridge Hoard” treasure trove the couple found while out walking their dog is estimated at $10 million or more, according to the Huffington Post. The couple told coin expert Don Kagin, “It was like finding a hot potato.”
Now the California couple who found the coins, according to ABC News, might not be so lucky after all. The coins are so rare it has been reported that some of that coin experts say they could go for nearly $1 million apiece, according to the Daily Mail UK. They also may have been stolen from the U.S. Mint in 1900 and thus would still be the property of the government, according to a published report.
“I never would have thought we would have found something like this. However, in a weird way I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for it,” the couple reported. Because paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, it is very rare to find coins from before that of such high quality. The coins are mostly uncirculated and are in mint condition, and they add up in face value to $27,000.
When contacted today by ABC News, Mint spokesman Adam Stump issued this statement: “We do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility. Surviving agency records from the San Francisco Mint have been retired to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), under Record Group 104. Access to the records is under NARA’s jurisdiction: http://www.archives.gov/.”
Top image credit: www.article.wn.com
Middle image credit: ABC News