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Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

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Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#91

Post by digitalengineer »

prawn wrote: post #79
jonnathanson wrote: post #61

At 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 apo…

"Who buries $750,000 in tin cans?" Not quite the same amount, but my grandfather buried around $10k a few decades ago in his backyard. He'd migrated from Europe where he was well-off and lost a large amount of money entrusting money with a lawyer. I think he also had reason not to trust banks, but can't remember specifics. Fast forward to Australia where, now decidedly working class, he had saved up a new sum and wan…

Hard to believe now, but in 1933 the possession of gold by Americans was banned by Executive Order 6102. After the confiscation the price of gold jumped and people got duped.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#92

Post by Cthulhu_ »

MichaelGG wrote: post #50
nlh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just 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 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 vau…

Wow 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?

> (Can you imagine US citizens today being forced to fight overseas?)

Erm, yes? They're also called 'soldiers', they volunteer to go into the army and kill people for money.

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#94

Post by GFischer »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #92
MichaelGG wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow 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?

> (Can you imagine US citizens today being forced to fight overseas?) Erm, yes? They're also called 'soldiers', they volunteer to go into the army and kill people for money.

forced != volunteer

To clarify: It was forced conscription, not voluntary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_Stat...

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#95

Post by 650REDHAIR »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #19
650REDHAIR wrote: post #5

Why 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.

They 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.

Ok, that makes more sense. Still seems like an awful lot of information to put out there.

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#96

Post by theandrewbailey »

fennecfoxen wrote: post #47
theandrewbailey wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe in 50 years, we will be mining asteroids for precious metals...

"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/ (take with as many grains of salt as you feel like) But hey, I'm sure they can spare a mis…

With 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.

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#97

Post by gretful »

ubernostrum wrote: post #11
ck2 wrote: post #3

Doesn'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 not really relat…

It's only the 1933 Double Eagles that get seized, and only because the government's position is those coins were never legally issued, meaning private possession of one could only have come about via theft from the Mint, which makes the coins stolen government property.

I wonder why no Statute of Limitations apply to this?

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#98

Post by twic »

WalterBright wrote: post #69
iandanforth wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, but here it's something that has two well understood prices. One, currency, which doesn't change over time, and two, gold, which fluctuates but generally increases over time. And despite being composed of these other things it has a third almost-totally-unconnected price related to artificial scarcity! I think that is super neat. It may also signal that humans are totally insane, but no matter.

When the price of gold fluctuates, you have to be careful inferring meaning - is it the value of gold fluctuating, or the value of the currency fluctuating? It's not an easy question to answer.

No, it's a very easy question to answer. How many cups of coffee would a gram of gold buy me?

Yesterday morning, the London gold fix was 803.117 GBP/oz; if i took my gram of gold to my local baristas and traded it, i would get 6.59 flat whites. Yesterday morning, the gold fix was at 798.532 GBP/oz; my gram would have got me 6.55 flat whites.

Whereas if i'd gone in this morning with 4.30 GBP in ready money, i would have got 1.00 flat whites. And if i'd gone in yesterday with 4.30 GBP, i would have got 1.00 flat whites.

You can do this analysis against benchmarks other than flat whites: cappucinos, espressos, and even things that aren't coffee. You will always find that the buying power of a unit of currency remains constant from day to day, while the buying power of a unit of gold does not. It's gold that fluctuates.

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#99

Post by daniel-cussen »

iandanforth wrote: post #15

My 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.

There's a legal factor you're not considering. USG has confiscated bullion gold in the past, but not coin collections. Therefore, for goldbugs, these coins are worth more than their bullion content of $1.75 million, and obviously much more than the $27,000 face value price.

Re: Tin cans filled with $10M in gold coins found buried in California

#100

Post by giarc »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #30
giarc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own my house but the government keeps mineral and mining rights. Gold's a mineral right?

Depends 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.

Sarcasm doesn't go over well online. I was just kidding around.
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