î мцšт вяздк чфµ Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Couple strikes $10 million gold-coin bonanza JOHN ROGERS, AP February 26, 2014, 8:30 am Couple strike $10 million gold-coin bonanza. Photo: ABC News LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree. Nearly all of the 1427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece. "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," said veteran numismatist Don Kagin, who is representing the finders. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." One of the six decaying metal canisters filled with 1800s-era US gold coins unearthed in California by two people who want to remain anonymous. Photo: AP. Kagin, whose family has been in the rare-coin business for 81 years, would say little about the couple other than that they are husband and wife, are middle-aged and have lived for several years on the rural property in California's Gold Country, where the coins were found. They have no idea who put them there, he said. The pair are choosing to remain anonymous, Kagin said, in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors. They also don't want to be treated any differently, said David McCarthy, chief numismatist for Kagin Inc. of Tiburon. "Their concern was this would change the way everyone else would look at them, and they're pretty happy with the lifestyle they have today," he said. They plan to put most of the coins up for sale through Amazon while holding onto a few keepsakes. They'll use the money to pay off bills and quietly donate to local charities, Kagin said. Before they sell them, they are loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens Thursday in Atlanta. What makes their find particularly valuable, McCarthy said, is that almost all of the coins are in near-perfect condition. That means that whoever put them into the ground likely socked them away as soon as they were put into circulation. Because paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, he added, it's extremely rare to find any coins from before that of such high quality. "It wasn't really until the 1880s that you start seeing coins struck in California that were kept in real high grades of preservation," he said. The value of the "Saddle Ridge Hoard" treasure trove is estimated at $10 million or more. Photo: AP. The coins, in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, were stored more or less in chronological order in six cans, McCarthy said, with the 1840s and 1850s pieces going into one can until it was filled, then new coins going into the next one and the next one after that. The dates and the method indicated that whoever put them there was using the ground as their personal bank and that they weren't swooped up all at once in a robbery. Although most of the coins were minted in San Francisco, one $5 gold piece came from as far away as Georgia. Kagin and McCarthy would say little about the couple's property or its ownership history, other than it's located in Gold Country, a sprawling, picturesque and still lightly populated section of north-central California that extends east of Sacramento to the Nevada line, running through the hills and valleys of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, about 50 miles northeast of Sacramento, set off the California Gold Rush of 1848. The coins had been buried by a path the couple had walked for years. On the day they found them last spring, the woman had bent over to examine an old rusty can that erosion had caused to pop slightly out of the ground. "Don't be above bending over to check on a rusty can," Kagin said she told him. They were located on a section of the property the couple nicknamed Saddle Ridge, and Kagin is calling the find the Saddle Ridge Hoard. He believes it could be the largest such discovery in US history. One of the largest previous finds of gold coins was $1 million worth uncovered by construction workers in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1985. More than 400,000 silver dollars were found in the home of a Reno, Nevada, man who died in 1974 and were later sold intact for $7.3 million. Gold coins and ingots said to be worth as much as $130 million were recovered in the 1980s from the wreck of the SS Central America. But historians knew roughly where that gold was because the ship went down off the coast of North Carolina during a hurricane in 1857. http://au.news.yahoo...d-coin-bonanza/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grapefruits Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 be right back, gotta take my dog for a walk... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheels22 Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 It must have been a Golden Retriever... Boom! 1,000th post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
î мцšт вяздк чфµ Posted March 9, 2014 Author Share Posted March 9, 2014 It must have been a Golden Retriever... Boom! 1,000th post! here sir, have a +1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pears Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 It must have been a Golden Retriever... Boom! 1,000th post! I see what you did there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancaster Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Just wait until the IRS are done with them.... they'll probably regret find the loot, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRussianRocket. Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 It must have been a Golden Retriever... Boom! 1,000th post! Well played, well played Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derp... Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Stay golden pony boy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MillerGenuineDraft Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Stay golden pony boy Sorry the golden retriever post was funnier than yours sorrynotsorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tystick Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 That's actually so awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tre Mac Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Dizzam, share the wealth!!! Imagine being the previous owner of this property and seeing all this on the news... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Aerosex Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 It must have been a Golden Retriever... Boom! 1,000th post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Wow nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offensive Threat Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Just wait until the IRS are done with them.... they'll probably regret find the loot, lol. Do they own the property it was found on? IF so, If the loot was already on the property when they purchased it, then it could be that the federal tax would not apply. Found treasure laws according to the IRS are “If you find and keep property that does not belong to you that has been lost or abandoned (treasure-trove), it is taxable to you at its fair market value in the first year it is in your undisputed possession.” but this property DOES belong to them as it is a part of the property they purchased when they bought the place. They would pay the max federal tax of 39.6% and Cal. state tax of 13.3% with a portion of the federal tax being reduced for state tax paid equaling about 47% total tax. If they can avoid the federal tax then good for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drummer4now Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Why they disclosed finding the treasure is beyond me? Always go quietly into the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offensive Threat Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Why they disclosed finding the treasure is beyond me? Always go quietly into the night. Disclosure is required by law. Maybe they arent criminals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouria Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Do they own the property it was found on? IF so, If the loot was already on the property when they purchased it, then it could be that the federal tax would not apply. Found treasure laws according to the IRS are “If you find and keep property that does not belong to you that has been lost or abandoned (treasure-trove), it is taxable to you at its fair market value in the first year it is in your undisputed possession.” but this property DOES belong to them as it is a part of the property they purchased when they bought the place. They would pay the max federal tax of 39.6% and Cal. state tax of 13.3% with a portion of the federal tax being reduced for state tax paid equaling about 47% total tax. If they can avoid the federal tax then good for them. That is such a joke. People should not be taxed for things they find. Another money grab scheme by the government. I wonder if they could've quietly put the treasure in an off-shore bank account/swiss bank account. They would be off the hook and IRS wouldn't be able to notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offensive Threat Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 That is such a joke. People should not be taxed for things they find. Another money grab scheme by the government. I wonder if they could've quietly put the treasure in an off-shore bank account/swiss bank account. They would be off the hook and IRS wouldn't be able to notice. The IRS has full access to Swiss Bank records of accounts held by American citizens. Those good old days of them being out of reach of Uncle Sam are long gone and the list of wealthy Americans actually getting real prison sentences for tax evasion is a very long one. Sure its minimum security but its still jail. IF you want to hide your cash offshore Singapore is the place. The combination of very low taxation and favorable Banking secrecy laws make it the natural choice. Now all I need is $10 million worth of gold coins in my backyard and Im set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouria Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 The IRS has full access to Swiss Bank records of accounts held by American citizens. Those good old days of them being out of reach of Uncle Sam are long gone and the list of wealthy Americans actually getting real prison sentences for tax evasion is a very long one. Sure its minimum security but its still jail. IF you want to hide your cash offshore Singapore is the place. The combination of very low taxation and favorable Banking secrecy laws make it the natural choice. Now all I need is $10 million worth of gold coins in my backyard and Im set. What about Iran's bank? The only place IRS has no access at all and will never have. For a swiss account, if you can find someone trustworthy to put money under their name, the IRS won't find out about it. Thats how they did it in Wolf of Wallstreet movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightHawkSniper Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 The IRS has full access to Swiss Bank records of accounts held by American citizens. Those good old days of them being out of reach of Uncle Sam are long gone and the list of wealthy Americans actually getting real prison sentences for tax evasion is a very long one. Sure its minimum security but its still jail. IF you want to hide your cash offshore Singapore is the place. The combination of very low taxation and favorable Banking secrecy laws make it the natural choice. Now all I need is $10 million worth of gold coins in my backyard and Im set. The swiss do not give out that info freely, even to the IRS. They are like the Caymans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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