State of California 'claims' that the 10 M dollar gold stash found by couple was likely stolen fro

abcnews.go.com...

Call me suspicious but I think that the 'article' in the paper that claimed that 30K in gold coins was stolen from a San Francisco mint as closely as Obamas Hawaiian BC.
Photoshop is cheap and easy and there, after all, is 10M at stake. I know it is only a drop in the bucket to a state that has had the worst 10% of Mexicos population foisted off on it to support at the expense of the taxpayers pockets but after 6 years of recession those pockets are pretty empty so the state will take whatever it thinks it can.

Those are my thoughts, what about the rest of you?

reply to post by VforVendettea


Those folks should have never gone public with their discovery.

Let it be a lesson...

If the coins were stolen from the government, the couple may be entitled to a finder's fee but they may not be able to keep the stash. The Mint has not yet commented on the situation.

This is why when you find something you shut the # up about it.

Trickled out a coin a time over many years would have put some money in their pocket and kept suspicions down.

The super-hot items that could have raised red flags get melted and mailed into one of those "cash for gold" places.

LOL wasn't it predicted in the original thread, that something like this would happen? Everyone is right, they should have kept quiet and sold them slowly, one by one.

The whole thing seemed a little clean to me. I mean when was the last time some coins like that went missing or got stolen. Dig a hole let the cans rust and you got ten mil. the whole thing sounds a little bit off.

reply to post by VforVendettea

I can't wait for the state to try and PROVE that these coins were stolen in a court of law.It sounds like a feeble attempt to rip these people off to me.

California gold paid for a third of the civil war, there was and still is a lot of gold out there. I do a tiny bit of armature prospecting myself and you learn thing bit by bit such as in the past if you found raw gold you could take it to the mint and for a price exchange it for minted coins.

If there was such a hoard stolen I don't think the mint would have stopped at a simple conviction and prison sentence, they 'would' have found the gold (think torture) life was cheap back then (to the Gov life is still cheap)

The California Gov will just pee the wealth away and the couple that found it will probably wind up in jail for stealing state property. Don't you love what our government has become!

reply to post by TDawg61


sounds reasonable though
who at the time would have had 27k in gold coins?
and why would some random wealthy bugger decide to bury them?
seems fairly likely that it was stolen and the thief buried it so as to not be caught with the evidence (making it far less likely they would be identified) and planned to dig it up when the heat was off

the reason some one in the other thread predicted this is because its a likely scenario

but i suppose the couple did work very hard for it and therefor deserve it.... all tax exempt of course to encourage more people like these hard working entrepreneurs.....they were out for a walk at the time you know!.....have you ever gone for a walk? its exhausting (nothing against the couple in question i know nothing about them)

reply to post by TDawg61


Bingo!

My theory is that it is from a from a lost Dutchman/ Pegleg Smith/ Pick a prospectors name/ type gold find where the original finder started while he was in his 20's slaved away his life and like Silias Marner would cash in his stash for only just enough to live on until at the end he took all the raw unmined gold to the mint and exchanged it for coins and his accumulated store stayed where he buried it until the couple found it.

reply to post by VforVendettea


except banks kept records..... so..... theres that

VforVendettea


The California Gov will just pee the wealth away and the couple that found it will probably wind up in jail for stealing state property. Don't you love what our government has become!

it's not california gold some of the coins where minted in geogria, and the mint is U.S. Owned. the coins are US coins. ie Federal Propriety.
if it turns out to be those coins, california has no claim to them.

and besides, i don't see how they can id them as coming from that mint. coins have no serial number.

thisguyrighthere

If the coins were stolen from the government, the couple may be entitled to a finder's fee but they may not be able to keep the stash. The Mint has not yet commented on the situation.

This is why when you find something you shut the # up about it.

Trickled out a coin a time over many years would have put some money in their pocket and kept suspicions down.

The super-hot items that could have raised red flags get melted and mailed into one of those "cash for gold" places.

The problem is you are supposed to have these things declared on your IRS filings year to year that you posses x amount of gold and its value and each year you are to pay tax on it as it grows in value.

so if they don't say anything and try to auction it off for the value then they will be audited by the IRS.

easiest keep quiet sell off one at a time underground only and use the cash sparingly so no one notices to much of a change in lifestyle.

I hope there is a reward for it by the mint. and that the reward would be updated to today's value.

Not sure how these folk could've "kept it quiet" and profited from it...they're not international criminal masterminds. Someone would've put the pieces together if they tried to trickle them out and then they'd have a bunch of problems - unless some shady insider got wind of their stockpile and robbed them first.

I hope CA nor any other state successfully claims the booty, but if they do then maybe they finders will get a reward at least!

hounddoghowlie

VforVendettea


The California Gov will just pee the wealth away and the couple that found it will probably wind up in jail for stealing state property. Don't you love what our government has become!

it's not california gold some of the coins where minted in geogria, and the mint is U.S. Owned. the coins are US coins. ie Federal Propriety.
if it turns out to be those coins, california has no claim to them.

and besides, i don't see how they can id them as coming from that mint. coins have no serial number.

edit on 4-3-2014 by hounddoghowlie because: (no reason given)

Coins don't have serial numbers but they do have mint marks coins from California has the S mark for the San Francisco mint. The only place I can think of that would have this amount of coins besides a bank would be Wells Fargo they transported a lot of gold for the banks. And Wells Fargo did report a robbery around the time these coins were minted I think they still have a reward out for the return of the coins.

lost or stolen coins might have been insured, if so the insurance company might have a legal claim.

Doesn't California have a statute of limitations? If these were stolen it was long ago, and the ancient Magna Cartga based Spanish-Californian law of "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers" should have taken effect by now.

reply to post by Aleister



Jewish families are still recovering looted artwork from the 30s. Proof of ownership is the key I think.

They should have just taken them to Pawn Stars... in Vegas.

Of course they wouldn't have gotten 10 mil, but 5-6 would have been nice.

reply to post by elevatedone


ah yes the 50% "you dont own a pawnshop" tax
friggin pawn stars stealing gold from hard workin folk
r-"ive got over head and im gonna sit on it for a while...... soooo.... best i can do is $20"
om-"toppa the mark son"
customer-"i was really looking for closer to $10,000,000 ....but $20 is more than i came in with so im happy"


(meanwhile the audience is beating off to the idea that they too can someday rip people off to this extent)

buster2010

hounddoghowlie

VforVendettea


The California Gov will just pee the wealth away and the couple that found it will probably wind up in jail for stealing state property. Don't you love what our government has become!

it's not california gold some of the coins where minted in geogria, and the mint is U.S. Owned. the coins are US coins. ie Federal Propriety.
if it turns out to be those coins, california has no claim to them.

and besides, i don't see how they can id them as coming from that mint. coins have no serial number.

edit on 4-3-2014 by hounddoghowlie because: (no reason given)

Coins don't have serial numbers but they do have mint marks coins from California has the S mark for the San Francisco mint. The only place I can think of that would have this amount of coins besides a bank would be Wells Fargo they transported a lot of gold for the banks. And Wells Fargo did report a robbery around the time these coins were minted I think they still have a reward out for the return of the coins.

i guess you missed this in my post.

some of the coins where minted in geogria

the coins from geogria have a D on them for the former Dahlonega Mint, when the story first came out it was said that some of these coin were minted there.
my point whether, they have a S or D on them without a serial number coins cannot be traced to where they came from after they left a mint. therefore any claim that the coins came from a certain place with out some identifying marks, container, or any other instrument that would id them as belonging to another person, company or state is flat out speculation.

the only real owner of U.S. coin or currency, is the Federal Government. just because you have such in your possession, you are not the owner of the currency, you are only entitled to the vulvae of coin or bill for goods, services or what ever. the coin or bill belongs to the federal government. why do you think it is illegal to melt down copper pennies, it not just because of the copper, also you cnnot legally destroy any bills. they could if they wanted to go after you for even writing on bills.

in this case, the feds are going to try and say that they came from the mint robbery, or that gold coins where suppose to be turned in for other currency when fdr made it illegal for U.S. citizens legally own psychical gold.


ETA: i miss spoke,he made it illegal to own more than $100 in in Gold.

Executive Order 6102 is a United States presidential executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States". The order criminalized the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation. Executive Order 6102