A routine walk with a pet unexpectedly turned into a Hollywood movie plot when, from beneath 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 discovered 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 came to be known as the “Saddle Ridge Hoard.” This 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 this incredible story and the mysterious origin of the million-dollar treasure.
From One Coin to a Metal Detector
It all began when the man and woman noticed an old metal can sticking out of the ground on their familiar route. They brought it home, opened the lid, and were surprised to see a gold twenty-dollar 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 between the 1860s and 1890s, and the varying 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 in those times due to a lack of access to reliable banks.
“If you had $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 in gold that you accumulated over time, you weren’t going to leave it in your house,” the expert explained.
“If you don’t have a bank to put it 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 specimens as family heirlooms, and two unique gold coins from 1888 and 1892 were donated to the Smithsonian Institution.
As a reminder, mystical Viking-era amulet coins were found in Denmark. These are two extremely rare silver coins from the 11th century. Currently, only about 30 such examples are known in the world.
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