Finders Keepers?

A California couple was walking on their property when they stumbled upon a rusted, half-buried can.  After taking a closer look, the couple found six cans containing 1,427 gold coins with an estimated value of $10 million.

The couple may be stuck with a mere finder’s fee after new information surfaced about the treasure’s likely origins.  A historian has linked the coins to an unsolved 1900 gold heist at the San Francisco Mint.  The face value of $27,000 and the fact that these coins are in chronological order add credence to the coins being the result of the heist.

See Ashlee Kieler, Couple’s $10M Gold Coin Find Could Be from 1900 San Francisco Mint Heist, Consumerist, March 4, 2014. 

Special thanks to Kristen Vander-Plas (2016 Candidate for Doctorate of Jurisprudence, Texas Tech University School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.