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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 287251, member: 66&quot;]And it is probably a very good theory considering the one 70-S 3 dollar gold known today has initials scratched in it and at one time it had a loop soldered to it for use as a watch fob.&nbsp; Hardly something you would do with rare coins that you had gone to great risk to steal from the cornerstone of a government building.</p><p><br /></p><p>It also makes sense in another way.&nbsp; If you were producing coins to place in the cornerstone you wouldn&#039;t have a problem coming up with nice examples of the coins already being made for circulation, but what about those coins which were NOT being made?&nbsp; Getting the dies wouldn&#039;t be hard, just have them shipped from Philadelphia.&nbsp; After all that is where all of your dies come from.&nbsp; (Of course there can be some problems with that as well.&nbsp; The gold dollar and 3 dollar dies arrived without the mintmark on them.)&nbsp; Then how do you strike them?&nbsp; Put the dies in the press and try and turn the press on and off again so as to try and strike a single coin?&nbsp; What if it doesn&#039;t look good, try again?&nbsp; More sensible would be to turn the press on and let it run a few cycles producing from two to a dozen coins and then you have a group from which you can select the coin you want.&nbsp; This would explain why there are two half dimes (one cornerstone in in collectors hands) two 3 dollar golds (one cornerstone, one in collectors hands), and 10 silver dollars.&nbsp; (Possibly they started with the dollars and found the didn&#039;t have to run the press quite as many cycles so they cut back on the 3 dollar and half dime.)&nbsp; This would also mean that there is probably still an 1870-S quarter out there waiting to be discovered.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Most people tend to think that the cornerstone would be in a corner of the building, and you see a lot of buildings with a fancy stone with the date on it in the corner of modern buildings.&nbsp; But a ceremonial cornerstone can be placed ANYWHERE in a building.&nbsp; (The cornerstone of the second Philadelphia mint was &quot;placed&quot; a couple weeks before they even began the foundations.&nbsp; there was no corner to put it in.&nbsp; The ceremony was held but I believe the cornerstone items were taken back to the first mint and actually placed in the final cornerstone later.)&nbsp; So the SF cornerstone could be anywhere, in a wall, under the foundation, under the floor.&nbsp; I believe the mint had later additions put on it as well.&nbsp; The cornerstone could be hidden behind on of these additions as well and be inaccessible.</p><p><br /></p><p>As mentioned the 2nd SF mint is still in existence today.&nbsp; Typically cornerstones of old buildings are found and opened when a building is demolished.&nbsp; This hasn&#039;t happened with the old mint and until it does we may never know the truth about the cornerstone.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The old SF mint was one of the few building to survive the 1906 quake and subsequent fire relatively unscathed.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, but you would not be able to go around unescorted, there would be some areas you would NOT be allowed to go into, and I do think they would object if you started trying to knock a hole in the wall.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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