Possible theories for the $10 million in gold coins found in Cali?

General Discussion FSM Ready Room
1

I was reading an article on AOL News yesterday about a couple in California that found on their property 5 buried cans containing mint uncirculated gold coins ranging from 1847 to 1894. The coins are valued at about ten mills! I read some of the possible scenarios in the comments section posted by the readers that made no sense such as they were stolen from Fort Knox which wasn’t built till 1937. Or that the James Gang was responsible. Sounds intriguing except Jesse was bushwhacked in 1882 and the James Gang ventured as far as western Kansas.

I had a theory about the coins, that they were stolen possibly during a stage robbery where the gold was being sent to the banks from the San Francisco mint, but there is almost a 50 year gap in the coin dates which throws in a wrench at my theory.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/25/us/california-gold-discovery/

2

Thats cool,I read the article.thanks,I wonder what the tax ramifications are for this.I wonder if taxes are due when they sell it off,or right away.

3

Pirate treasure.

4

This may have had something to do with it.

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

Somebody probably had a stash of gold coins they didn’t want the government to steal… I mean confiscate…

5

Forgot about Roosevelt’s exec order of 1933. That sounds like the best reason to hide the loot.

6

“If you hadn’t cleaned them, they’d be worth…”.

7

To heck with the taxes- the gov’t has no claim on this. IMHO.

8

I agree but you know the state and the Feds will claim their tax shares on that plus whatever legalities the laws will claim…

9

Yeah, kinda irritated about that. My great granddad left those there and I inherited them. Didn’t have any room in the closet so I let them lie where they were until I could dig them up. Now those people won’t return my calls. Guess I’ll have to keep this day job a while longer.

10

Oh brother people roll over so easily. There’s a bunch of ways to minimize taxes on this. First of all it’s a 20% max on capital gains of that size. Second, if that’s too expensive for something you found for free, just keep them and no taxes due.

Or, will them to your kids and go die later. Value resets at zero when you die.

The bigger problem is that as soon as someone finds out who you are and where you live, run for your life.

11

Early hoarders…

12

Well, according to the news reports, the loot was determined to be stolen from the US Treasury back in the '30s, and the couple that found it will not be getting any money for it… Whatever happened to “Finders, Keepers”?

13

To paraphrase a departed member “the world wonders”…or, in the words of an acquaintance who spent a lot of time diving on WWII Japanese shipwrecks, “if I did find treasure, why would I tell anyone?”

14

Indeed. Now that the finders have a broker, who lives in my town, suddenly the find has been determined to be here too.

Thinkin’ about a rack of shovels and a $ 50.00 fee to dig in my back yard, within the perimeter of that future swimming pool of course.

15

Well, the government would have a hard time legally advocating these were the exact coins stolen from the San Francisco mint, since at least one of the coins was from Georgia.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?id=9454363

Still not known where these coins came from.

Aliens… the ones from space.

16

Yeah, I was wondering myself how they would know for sure where the coins came from. Coins don’t have serial numbers, do they? I know they have mint markings, but not serial numbers.