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Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California
- rjtavares 13y agoHN in 50 years: wallet with $10 million in BitCoin from the mining era found.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sebastianavina 13y agomaybe in 50 years, new cpus or math advancements could brute force wallets and make bitcoins worthless...
- timmclean 13y agomaybe in 50 years, new chemistry advancements could turn water to gold and make gold worthless...
- theandrewbailey 13y agomaybe in 50 years, we will be mining asteroids for precious metals...
- pg_is_a_butt 13y agomaybe in 50 years, we will be mining precious metals for asteroids
- TrainedMonkey 13y agoI am sure in 50 years it would be 2064 and we would be a decade away from fusion. Just kidding about fusion, I hope...
- pavel_lishin 13y agoMaybe in 50 years, we'll be mining those asteroids and Saturn's rings for water.
- fennecfoxen 13y ago"In space, a single platinum-rich 500 meter wide asteroid contains about 174 times the yearly world output of platinum, and 1.5 times the known world-reserves of platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum)." -- Planetary Resources, http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/composition/ http://www.planetaryresources.com/asteroids/composition/ (take with as many grains of salt as you feel like) But hey, I'm sure they can spare a mission to retrieve us some gold sooner or later. :P
- brianbreslin 13y agoI am sure Elon Musk is working on this...
- theandrewbailey 13y agoWith that much/many valuable metals there, there would have to be plenty of gold, too. I have no doubt that gold will be mined and retrieved, because it has industrial value. Not to mention its incredible economic value, and because gold.
- evan_ 13y agoMaybe in 50 years clean water will be as precious as the rarest diamond...
- J0415 13y agohttp://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5156246/7-5-million-bitcoins-on-hard-drive-thrown-away-in-uk http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/29/5156246/7-5-million-bitco...
- chc 13y agoI doubt anyone from this era has a wallet with 100000000000 BTC.
- willary 13y agoActually worth 50$ but is sold for $10 million because it belonged to known outlaw and cyber criminal Mark Karpeles
- chippy 13y agowould the electronics / magnetic storage thingys survive that far into the future if it was outside?
- ck2 13y agoDoesn't the US Treasury have a history of going around and seizing gold coins? I forget exactly why but I think it was because they were all recalled when we went off gold standard? I vaguely remember people finding these in deposit boxes, sharing it with the news and then magically losing it all when the treasury shows up to seize them. Ah here we go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 not really related but still gold-coin mind-blowing fact http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobody-wants http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobo...
- nlh 13y agoJust 1933 Double Eagles ($20). It's actually a fascinating story ... I'll dig up the link and post an edit shortly. Edit: the essential story - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_double_eagle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_double_eagle Edit 2: Quick aside: I know the guy who found the 10 additional coins in his vault (Roy Langbord). Super nice guy. I remember when a mutual friend called me up one day and said "So Roy just found 10 1933 $20 gold coins in his vault. Are those worth anything?" ... Gulp ...
- sliverstorm 13y agoSssh, we're trying to drum up distrust in the government and drive up the price of our gold holdings here! Get with the program! :)
- MichaelGG 13y agoWow that's so messed up. The Gold Reserve Act, too. It seems extremely "un-American" for the government to force people to sell their gold to the treasury. OTOH, so do a lot of things in hindsight, like the Vietnam draft. (Can you imagine US citizens today being forced to fight overseas?) Was this a common viewpoint when the act went in, or it decades of history since colouring my vision?
- wintersFright 13y agoThey immediately revalued the price of gold afterward so I'm sure it was seen as theft by the govt.
- 650REDHAIR 13y agoWhy would you ever go public with this sort of discovery? Seems like it will just create one hell of a headache for the couple who discovered the coins.
- pickleport 13y agoAccording to the article they chose to remain anonymous.
- patrickg_zill 13y agoThey are being pretty cagey about who they are and where they were found. My guess, is that they went "partially" public in order to generate interest in selling these coins at auction, or via some other way to increase how much they can sell them for.
- 650REDHAIR 13y agoOk, that makes more sense. Still seems like an awful lot of information to put out there.
- ereckers 13y agoI wouldn't go public either. Somebody before them owned that property and I wonder if old relatives could give you troubles.
- theandrewbailey 13y agoIf it was found on your land, and the deed to that land has been in your name for several years, they wouldn't have legit claim.
- giarc 13y agoI own my house but the government keeps mineral and mining rights. Gold's a mineral right?
- theandrewbailey 13y agoDepends on where you live. Oftentimes, mineral rights belong to the landowner. They can be sold or leased. I doubt that buried coinage/treasure would be considered a mineral.* *I'm not a lawyer.
- pavel_lishin 13y agoThey could still try to make a claim, and you'd presumably still have to hire a lawyer and go to court, which would be no fun at all.
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- iandanforth 13y agoMy favorite part about this is why it's worth $10 million. Because it's currency? Nope. Because it's gold? Nope. Because it's collectable? Yes! Really highlights how price and value can come unstuck.
- hackinthebochs 13y agoI remember seeing a documentary that made the connection between the evolution of money and the human race's tendency to find inherent value in "collectibles". Stones, shells, jewelry, etc, were all the basis for a currency in various times, and its only because of our shared appreciation for collectibles that this worked.
- sjg007 13y agoOne should read: The Island of Stone Money.
- yskchu 13y agoWow, very interesting, thanks for that! For others interested, here's some links: NPR Article http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-isla... Milton Friedman paper on the island. http://hoohila.stanford.edu/workingpapers/getWorkingPaper.php?filename=E-91-3.pdf http://hoohila.stanford.edu/workingpapers/getWorkingPaper.ph...
- brc 13y agoWell, currency is defined by divisibility, durability, scarcity and difficulty of forging. Humans desire a medium of exchange to better facilitate trade. The desire to trade creates the requirement for currency. The desire to collect manifests in many different forms - but the use of currency is separate (though probably related) to that.
- tellarin 13y agoCollectibles are also related to durability, scarcity and difficulty of forging. So I guess it's more related to currency than most would realize. I for one had never thought about it this way.
- patrickg_zill 13y ago$27,000 face value in $10 and $20 gold coins, each gold coin having 0.9675 ounces of gold in them ($10 coins would have had exactly half that amount of gold). So that is about 1350 $20 gold coins or their equivalent, thus 1300 ounces of gold. At current spot prices of $1340 per ounce, about $1.75 million USD. IF they are the $20 coins, they probably look similar to these: http://www.apmex.com/product/9119/20-liberty-gold-double-eagle-cleaned http://www.apmex.com/product/9119/20-liberty-gold-double-eag...
- snake_plissken 13y agoThis story made me smile. Legitimate buried treasure!
- Natsu 13y agoFor anyone else who thought to check, no the photos do not appear to contain any GPS coordinates in the EXIF data, so they have the treasure hunting grounds all to themselves.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- pavel_lishin 13y agoThe article mentions that the cans were exposed by erosion. They were almost certainly buried there to keep them safe. And as far as forgetting... well, that's not unprecedented. Remember the guy who threw away a hard drive with 7500 bitcoins on it? http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/11/30/from-treasure-to-trash-man-tosses-out-bitcoin-wallet-on-hard-drive-worth-9-million/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/11/30/from...
- IbJacked 13y agoRather than forgotten, I would guess the owner died. Their arrangement in the cans suggest they were being saved over a period of time, which makes me think it was someone's personal savings and he simply died with no one knowing about the stash.
- gojomo 13y agoYC (S14): Gold Country Metal-Detecting Drones
- doubt_me 13y agoDude. a segway metal detector ... I mean why not
- chris_mahan 13y agoIn a cemetery? In a grave marked unknown? Is there Ennio Morricone music playing in the background? Is there a closeup of Blondie's cigar?
- groovylick 13y agoThe Ecstasy of Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOr0na6mKJQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOr0na6mKJQ one of my favorite movie soundtracks.
- chris_mahan 13y agoThank you. Linked vid is not available in the US, but quick youtube search yield suitable alternatives.
- shiven 13y agoYou get an upvote for bringing up Morricone! That man is a genius!!
- xacaxulu 13y agoThis is probably one of the better way to save your money from the bankrupt state.
- scott_karana 13y agoOnly if you can anticipate that the value of the metal is still there in 100 years, or that the coins will be worth something as a collector's piece. Imagine if these were aluminum, which was expensive in the 1870s... (http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9511/Binczewski-9511.html http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9511/Binczewski-9511.ht...)
- brc 13y agoThis is a time-honoured tradition. The dirt in england is awash with buried hoards, where people buried their currency and valuables to hide them from the government. The list is fascinating.
- wpietri 13y agoWhich is exactly what some fool thought 100 years ago when they buried and lost these coins.
- lexcorvus 13y agoBecause paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s My, how times have changed.
- MichaelGG 13y agoIs that sarcastic? Because in many states, having "enough" paper money is reason enough for the police to take it and harass you. Even without charging you with a crime, mere possession of cash is enough.
- lexcorvus 13y agoI was referring to "paper money" in the abstract sense, i.e., currency not tied to a commodity with a limited supply (such as gold). You're right, of course, that mere possession of sufficient quantities of literal paper money is even today de facto illegal—a situation I join you in deploring.
- robg 13y agoHoard of uncirculated coins in chronological order found buried under a tree? Isn't that the likely result of a robbery?
- jonnathanson 13y agoAt the risk of stating the obvious, it's worth noting that $27,000 was a lot of money in 1849. To give a rough estimate, we're talking about the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $750,000 (give or take). Who buries $750,000 in tin cans? Who has $750,000 in unbanked, walking-around money in the first place? The mid-19th century Walter White? Maybe someone cleaning out his bank account in anticipation of a financial apocalypse? This is the interesting part of this story, IMO. In any event, this might be one stash among several. If someone had that kind of coin lying around, my guess is that he didn't bury it all in one place.
- moonka 13y agoI'm not sure in 1849 there were a lot of banks that one would trust that kind of funds with in gold rush areas in CA. I'd imagine banks were much less robust than they are now, and even now I believe that 750k is > the FDIC insurance limits.
- jonnathanson 13y agoThere was no FDIC in 1849, so fair enough point. No deposits were insured. :) But people generally didn't realize how problematic that was except in financial panics and runs on banks. To wit, there was a big panic in 1873, not long after these coins were ostensibly buried. But that was well after these coins were minted, which makes their near-mint, quasi-uncirculated condition a bit hard to reconcile. I suppose it's possible the burier had them in tin cans (or some other receptacle) for decades, and buried them in the 1870s. At any rate, banks were around and thriving during the Gold Rush, and San Francisco was in many ways the most progressive financial hub in the US, rivaling NYC. To whatever extent someone had $27,000 in those days, he probably would have banked it. Unless he'd come into it very recently, or under suspicious circumstances, or had just withdrawn it prior to burying it. It's certainly possible this person was a bank robber, though the more likely explanation is an unbanked or bank-panicked individual.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoI would start looking at the records for some bank robber who got shot and nobody ever found the money. Stashing your economies inside a house, in a safe, I can understand... but in cans, under a tree? This is the kind of thing someone on a getaway would do. The coins are fresh out of the mint too, so it's likely the entire stash came from one place.
- rasz_pl 13y agomeh gold, now if those were dogecoins ....
- qbrass 13y agoBury some now, and it could make the news in 130 years.
- chrismcb 13y agoI like how they talk about how RARE mint coins from before 1880 are, and how there are several one of a kind finds, and many from before 1880... And then they show a coin from 1886