A routine walk with a pet unexpectedly turned into a plot of a Hollywood movie when, from under a layer of dirt, the dog unearthed a rusty tin can that forever changed the family’s life and shocked historians.
An American couple accidentally found over a thousand gold coins / © Associated Press
In California, an ordinary couple, while walking their dog on their property, discovered a unique historical cache, which received the name “Saddle Ridge Treasure.” The find of the century was made back in 2013, but the details of how people unearthed 1411 ancient gold coins in a rusty tin can continue to amaze the world today.
The Daily Galaxy tells about this amazing story and the mysterious origin of the million-dollar treasure.
From One Coin to a Metal Detector
It all began when a man and a woman noticed an old metal can sticking out of the ground on their familiar route. They brought it home, opened the lid, and unexpectedly saw a twenty-dollar gold coin through the dirt. Over the next two weeks, the Americans thoroughly searched the area with a metal detector and found a total of eight such containers.
The face value of all the money found was about $28,000, but its real market price for collectors reached $10 million. The coins were minted in the period from the 1860s to the 1890s, and the different degrees of wear on the cans suggest that the treasure was likely buried in parts at different times.
The Owner’s Mystery and the Fate of the Money
The origin of this gold remains unknown, although the site itself is located near the epicenter of the California Gold Rush. According to leading numismatist David McCarthy, people often buried their savings back then due to a lack of access to reliable banks.
“If you had $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 in gold that you had accumulated over time, you wouldn’t leave it in your house,” the expert explained.
“If you don’t have a bank to put the money in, the only logical choice is to bury it in the ground. It’s pretty typical human behavior,” the numismatist added.
Realizing the value of their find, the couple decided to sell most of the coins through the online platform Amazon, pay off their debts, and donate a portion of the funds to charity. They kept a few pieces as family heirlooms, and two unique gold coins from 1888 and 1892 were donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
As a reminder, mystical amulet coins from the Viking era were found in Denmark. These are two extremely rare silver coins from the 11th century. To date, only 30 such examples are known worldwide.
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