Gold coin hoard found

Pentaluma, CA if I remember right, a suburb of SF? http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Couple-stumbles-upon-10-million-in-rare-coins-5268319.php

There are many people researching this now. The PCGS posters have been trading views on it, Dimmick, the mint worker looks like the criminal behind the hoard. Unless you can come up with a better plausible explanation?

 

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I know what you are saying Mainebill, and I hope your comment holds true. It would be nice to see a needy recipient find some treasure like this.. The only thing different is this is California. There really isn't any cheap land anywhere. All the coastline is controlled by existing families and is passed down through blood lines. If you build a new home within a few miles of the ocean, you can lease the land for 99 years but never own it. The center of the state is all wine country and it goes for big bucks. Southern California, the lots are sometimes more expensive than the homes on them. The rugged areas are now controlled and owned by the California Park Services and are not for sale. Except for Hawaii, California has some of the country's most expensive land, along with the taxes that go hand in hand. It is only an assumption on my part but a fairly good one. But I actually hope your right and I am wrong.

 

So, thinking like the finders' attorney, how could the Feds ever prove they are the same coins stolen? I don't think they kept track of dates, so just another $27k.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ts-weigh-origins-couples-10-million-find.html

 

I read in one of the news reports that they were a middle class (probably upper middle living in California) couple in their 40s I know how it is out there but I also know there are parts of the state especially northern and inland that are fairly depressed one of my ex girlfriends was from out there and were still friendly she says where she's from the Sacramento area the economy is not good let's hope is someone who can use the money and the lawyers don't get it all

 

Is kinda the same in parts of maine unless your way up north land and houses on the coast are prohibitively expensive there's plenty of cheap land in northern and western Maine but no work good for hunting fishing and snowmobiling is about all southern Maine where I live is middle to upper middle class most people work and there's jobs to be had many people even commute to Massachusetts cause there's better pay there and better quality of living here I don't know anywhere along the coast on either side where living is cheap tho

 

I'm with you Bill. I don't think this is the same gold stolen from the SF Mint. It's amazing to me that people just can't be happy for their good fortune. The somehow need to disparage it. On another thread, someone went as far as to say they were dis-honest because they couldn't find the original owners and weren't going to share it with the previous owners. It appears to me that many opinions are being thrown around without people reading the ENTIRE article or knowing anything about this couple and what they tried to do prior to claiming 100% ownership. Some think they are selling ALL the coins on Amazon. READ the article. That's not the case.

MOST of the coins were from SF. NOT ALL. There was a $5 Dahlonega coin in the hoard as well. Dimmik started work at the mint in 1898. Some of these coins are dated 50 years prior to his working there. He only stole 500 coins. It's all speculation. I love how our country no longer waits for the facts, but just jumps to conclussions!

 

Having read Roger Burdette's "From Mine to Mint" it was common practice for the Cashier's Office (at all branches & assay offices) to accept gold in any form (including jewelry, US coin, foreign coin, etc.) in daily routine transactions. So, it is conceivable that some US gold coins were accepted which represented other branch mints.

Chris

 

You are right. It's sad people can't just be happy for them. People are happy when others win the lottery...but not this.

Fact is, there is NO way to prove where these coins came from or who buried them. When these people purchased the property...they purchased everything in it. Even if they could find the descendents of the person who buried the gold...they wouldn't have a claim to it IMHO. I think this is a great find and I'm happy for those who found it...and maybe a little jealous.

 

I'm not jealous, and I doubt whether their ownership will survive the legal scrutiny that is coming. There are no statutes of limitations on stolen government property once that is ascertained. In fact there are many crimes without statutes of limitations like criminal tax evasion, murder and so forth.

 

Nah! I live on 5 acres in "the Gold Country" (less than 10 miles from "the discovery site")and 10, 15, and 20 acre parcels are simply not uncommon. Some of the terrain can be rough, some can be open, some can be heavily overgrown while some can be open space.
There's plenty of room to wander around.

About a year ago, we did have some very heavy rains which, I'm sure, uncovered this find.

BTW, if you get a chance, a visit out to my neck of the woods can be well worth it!

 

My brother in laws father didn't trust banks and as such had buried better than $80,000 worth of bullion silver under his house in Texas.

I was shocked (and jealous) when my brother in law showed my 5 gallon buckets filled with Kennedy Half Dollars (both 90% and 40%) and 300 coin bags of Morgan Dollars.
Fortunately, his father let his children know what was there and where it was before he passed away.

All this publicity makes me want to take my metal detector out to my 5 acres and the 12 acres that my uncle owns!

 

Actually, and this may have already been mentioned, they want to keep their anonymity so that they don't have to police their acreage of unwanted folks wandering arounf their property with metal detectors.

 

Well like I said earlier, just based on what we know, I don’t see how the Feds can prove it’s their gold. Many cans of coins have been buried and many are still out there. But, who knows what the facts are. Did the mint employee or his family ever have ownership of the property where the coins were found? One thing’s for certain, if the Feds go after the hoard, only the lawyers will profit, so maybe a settlement would be wise [if they go after it].

 

You know, you're absolutely right.

However, I can also imagine someone burying that kind of stash and then dying in some unforeseen accident before the location could be revealed.

I expect that the original owner died rather suddenly.

 

All I've found so far is that Dimmick was sentenced to 9 years and the gold was never found. So, did he die in prison? If not, can't imagine he left the gold in the ground (if he burried it).

 

There were many many people back then and still now that don't trust banks and it wasn't all buried at once with the variance of mintmarks and the long chronology of dates is my feeling that someone as they got extra money exchanged their silver smaller denominations and bills for gold 20s at the local banks then buried them in their stash as they filled one can they started another if they needed some they took a little out was someone's private savings they probably never told anyone about it and their secret died with them until now that's my opinion what happened there's probably plenty more coin hoards hidden all over the country

 

I'm a little jealous I wish it would happen to me if it had I'd keep a few of the best examples sell the rest and use it to go buy some exceptional early coins starting with as 1794 dollar

 

always can try to play to the lottery =)