It isn’t THAT stupid. Flushing 12 million in numismatic value (coming with extremely high risk of confiscation), in exchange for a far safer 2 million in scrap value is very rational for some people’s situations.
Risk,,,, Benefit. Its a balancing act
You could have EASILY gotten these to market for the numismatic value. All they had to do was say they were handed down through the family, etc... It’s not to difficult to come up with a plausible story that doesn’t involve putting blood in the water for pestilential bureaucrats or lawyers.
And it is the lawyers who will burn this trove. I already predicted on another thread that there are lawyers right now trying to noodle out that location and as soon as they get it, they will title search that place and contact the surviving relatives of EVERY single person who ever held title to that land and be approaching them with “Do you think there is ANY possibility that you’re [insert relative here] ever stashed things on his former property that he actually meant to be passed down?”
From what other treasure hunters I’ve talked to have told me, you can win every one of those hits, but you end up spending most or all of the treasure defending against them...
As for melting them, I LOVE old real money. That money is the absolute symbol of formerly free America and the sweat of the founders children and grandchildren forging a nation. Melting them is one more tiny step to eliminating the individualist symbolism that represents true American spirit.