California Couple Finds $10M in Gold Coins While Walking the Dog (VIDEO)
A California couple found $10 million in gold coins buried near a tree on their rural property. The middle-aged couple was walking the dog when they stumbled upon 1,427 rare, mint-condition coins in an old, rusty can.
The California couple that found the $10 million in gold coins is a husband and wife that are middle-aged, but they won't release their names to the public, according to numistatist Don Kagin, who is representing them. They don't want to be treated differently in the face of their find, which will almost certainly make them millionaires.
"I don't like to say once-in-a-lifetime for anything, but you don't get an opportunity to handle this kind of material, a treasure like this, ever," Kagin told the Associated Press. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."
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The $5, $10 and $20 coins, which are dated from 1847 to 1894, are arranged in chronological order and come mainly from San Francisco. All the coins were uncirculated, which means whoever buried them stored them away as soon as they were minted. When they were made they were worth about $27,000, but due to their rarity the find, called the Saddle Ridge Hoard, is worth around $10 million.
"It wasn't really until the 1880s that you start seeing coins struck in California that were kept in real high grades of preservation," David McCarthy, chief numismatist for Kagin Inc., told AP.
The couple plans first to lend the coins to the American Numismatic Association for their National Money Show, which starts in Atlanta Thursday. Afterwards, they will sell most of the coins on Amazon and use the money to anonymously donate to charity and pay off a few bills. They plan on keeping several of the coins as keepsakes, too.
Kagin believes the $10 million in gold coins could be one of the biggest finds in U.S. history. A previous recordholder was 400,000 silver dollars found in a Reno, Nev. man's home in 1974— they were sold for $7.3 million.
"Don't be above bending over to check on a rusty can," the wife told Kagin.
