This is a great story. A German Jew fled Nazi Germany and smuggled his money (in the form of US Double Eagles) into England. After he was sent to Australia as an enemy alien after war was declared the remaining family buried the coins in the yard of the family home in London. The remaining family was killed when a German bomb made a direct hit on the family house during the Blitz. When he returned after the war he could not find his buried gold. Someone found one jar of gold coins in 1952 and the other jar of coins was found in 2007. The original owner of the gold coins died 30 years ago but the recently-found coins have been awarded to his son. Refugee's coins returned to family
It is difficult to prove a negative. I cannot prove they were not stolen. Can you prove they were stolen? If you know your history of Nazi Germany, it was common for Jews in pre-war Germany to sell their property and leave with the proceeds. Gold was a more compact way to carry the proceeds than other forms (e.g., silver). And I don't think you would want your life savings in German currency at that time.
Interesting story, fascinating actually. I am surprised that the coins were able to be traced back to their owner, and that it in fact even took place...I'm surprised anyone actually knew the history, wonder why someone "told" the approximate whereabouts etc.. How did the son know that the coins had in fact been buried before the family was bombed/killed? And what prompted the gardener to turn them in? Actually, the questions go on and on, and what a neat story! Thank you for posting it. Lucy
my point was as lucyray mentioned... Its been a long time line 70yrs... In england if someone finds a buried treasure , the " finders " new owner has to pay taxes on it... A very heavey amount.... By claiming they were the fathers buried and found by the gardner and given to the son...thus the taxes are avoided We have no way of knowing where these coins came from, who they belonged to ... All we have is valuable gold coins being auctioned off... My suspect is someone is evading taxes... be it capital gain taxes on a investment or if they were found " treasure tax "But thats just me....
If I read correctly .... THE UNITED STATES was a gold " thief " in 1933 all the gold coins were ordered to be melted down and property of the u.s gov... Hitler did the same thing he siezed all the gold ordered the coins to be turned in... In the us if someone tired to smuggle u.s gold coins out of the country they could be arrested.... Hitler has the same law....
Beautiful story, hobo. For an even happier ending, they might bring much more than the 90,000 pounds, depending on the coins. Another interesting caveat... this unfortunate Jewish man left Germany only to be held in an English camp; it is the British, not the Germans, who gave us the term "concentration camp". He was then held in another concentration camp in Canada (as was a good friend of mine, who was a Canadian citizen at the time) and yet another camp in Australia. We Americans tend to beat ourselves up over the Japanese relocation camps here in the US during WW2; do the British, Canadians, and Australians have as much guilt about their concentration camps ? Just curious.
You did not read correctly. Holders of US Gold during the 1933 roundup were paid for their holdings. Let's be more careful levelling allegations comparing someone, or the United States, to Hitler.
900fine... I can your point... Oneday maybe we will see " north america returned to the natives " .... To see guilt it ones genocide you cant over lok your own
very cool story! when we did some excavation work at our home a few years back we found found oyster shells, a cow hoof and broken china that presumably came from a restaurant that used be at the end of the block in the 50's. Maybe we should have dug some more!
I remember this story when the coins were first found. Under British treasure trove laws the find had to be reported and the county coroner does an investigation. That investigation probably turned up the ownership by the Jewish refugee. We tend to have such guilt because we interned our own citizens in our camps. And if you think we feel bad about the Japanese relocation camps, at least most of us have heard of those. We are still hiding the stories of the Italian and German relocation camps that we sent our own citizens to. Or the deportation of US citizens of German decent to Germany during the war. These things did happen but it is very difficult to find out about them.
To just throw in my own story; My grandmother's family was living in Germany for a long time. Her father came here in 1936 to get his PhD and eventually her mom, herself and her siblings all came here in 1938. They were smart and left just in time, it was hard to get out, but they only did because her father was a doctor for the german army in WWI. Anyways, while he was here getting his PhD, my great grandmother took $10,000 in USD and sent it here in an envelope. It actually got here ok, mail wasnt checked thoroughly back then. She also shipped furniture and some other stuff like a china set. Yeah, we still have a huge 50+ plate set of dishes from germany made in 1912. We also have a silver butter tray that we found a few weeks ago..
Here's a link to a more detailed story on the hoard including the first time coins from this hoard were turned over to the owner! http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=46671
