14 DAY TRIAL // A lucky Californian couple found $10 million (€7.31 million) worth of gold coins buried in their back garden. The husband and wife discovered the gold stash while walking their dogs on their property near Sacramento.
They found 1,427 gold coins, dated from 1847 to 1894, probably the most valuable treasure ever unearthed in America.
The couple stumbled across the gold coins from the mid-19th century last February on their rural property in Gold Country, as reported by Kagin’s, the numismatic firm that helped the anonymous finders evaluate the coins.
Gold Country is a region in the central and northeastern part of California, near Sacramento and Sierra Nevada, famous for its mineral deposits and gold mines, that attracted waves of immigrants. The gold rush began there in 1849.
USA Today informs that the rare coins were buried in eight metal cans in the shadow of an old tree. Almost all of them are in uncirculated, mint condition, according to David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana.
The collection includes $5, $10 and $20 denomination coins, some of them being extremely rare. The majority are $20 liberty head pieces minted in San Francisco. The face value of the pieces ascends to $28,000 (€20,500), but due to their rareness, coin experts say they could sell at auction for $1million (€731,740) a piece.
“This is the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. What's really significant about this find is that this treasure combines a great quantity of pristine coins along with a great human interest story,” said coin dealer Don Kagin.
The unique treasure has been dubbed “Saddle Ridge Hoard” because it was discovered near a hill called by the anonymous couple Saddle Ridge.
The middle-aged couple decided to remain anonymous so as to avoid treasure hunters destroying their property in search for further gold stashes.
Given that no one knows who put the coins into the ground, the lucky couple gets to keep the treasure, according to the quasi-legal concept “Finders, keepers.” They plan to sell most of them on Amazon and use the money to pay off bills and make donations to “people in our community who are hungry and don't have enough to eat,” as reported by USA Today.
Some of the gold pieces will be on display at the upcoming American Numismatic Association National Money Show, which will be held in Atlanta from February 27 until March 1, 2014.