Possible, but if he was killed, why wouldn’t willing to murder another man be willing to take the gold shavings, assuming that was all they could find?
Because when you're pillaging, you don't look in wooden boxes. You kill, grab the obvious gold goodies and run to the next place. . . Besides you might be weighed down with such large gold items that the chicken feed stuff is not worth a second thought. Especially if you might get killed by the Johnny come latelys as you are rummaging for the small stuff.