Posted on 03/17/2017 6:04:24 AM PDT by C19fan
British officials are trying to trace the owner of a trove of gold coins worth a “life-changing” amount of money found stashed inside a piano.
A coroner investigating the find on Thursday urged anyone with information to come forward.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I thought they fell in the couch!
A friend of mine bought an antique desk and found that there was a hidden compartment with a good sized cache of gold coins. He was honest enough to tell the person who sold it to him, but I don’t know what happened from there.
Was it a piano with 88 keys? Some black, most white? Might be mine...
Begorrah, and they find me pot o’ gold on St. Paddy’s Day!
A little off topic, but “Ship of Gold and the Deep Blue Sea” is an excellent read and gives a lot of insight into the treasure hunters world.
Now I remember where I put my stash!
A Breitbart story that actually delivers what the headline promises!
I copied the photo, pasted it into Photoshop and counted the coins as best I could – could only count 72 but estimate the haul was around 100 coins.
Only recognized two coins from the late 1800’s, the rest looked like they were early 1900’s.
As gold coins go, Sovereigns have little collectable value and are usually sold for a few dollars over spot – regardless of their age.
The Sovereign has 0.2354 ounces of gold per coin, current spot price $1233 per ounce.
23.54 ounces at spot equals $29,024.00.
After taxes substantially less, hardly a life changing amount. Unless what is pictured is bag 1 of 100 or so bags …
Sorry but when I read “life changing” the first thing that came to mind is what crime are they going to charge the owner of the gold with?
The coroner's statement will bring all kinds of opportunists out of the woodwork to claim this fortune.
“Sorry but when I read “life changing” the first thing that came to mind is what crime are they going to charge the owner of the gold with?”
Yeah, it probably reaches some prosecutorial minimum.
Yes, sovereigns (and napoleons, etc) are basically traded as bullion coins. Collectors have not seemed to take an interest in them.
As I understand it, in Britain, found, hidden valuables can be declared “treasure” by the coroner. The Crown owns all treasure—however the crown will pay full value to the finder for anything it wants to keep. This comes up when someone finds a bunch of Roman coins in a field. The important coins will go to a local museum, the less important ones are returned to the finder. System works because the government does pay fair value. There is a difference between ‘lost’ and ‘hidden’. Since these coins were stashed in a bag, they were obviously hidden.
In the case of these gold coins, the coroner will try to find the legitimate owner and if he or she can’t be determined, the lucky piano owner will get to keep the coins.
(At least I think this is how this ‘treasure trove’ business works.)
#13 I would expect the piano tuner to make the determination : )
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