A California couple, who had been walking their dog for years in their own backyard, didn’t realise that they had been walking over gold.
Only recently, did they get lucky enough to stumble across a miraculous find – a treasure of 1427 coins worth 10 million US dollars – which they found buried beneath an old tree, reported the Associated Press.
According to Don Kagin, a top numismatist who is representing the finders, the lucky couple wishes to be anonymous to avoid any unwanted attention by people brandishing metal-detectors, who would love to rush to their property in search for more gold.
The woman spotted the treasure when she crouched over to examine what she thought was an ancient rusted tin can, a part of which was peeking above the ground, thanks to the soil erosion.
But the same old rusted can turned out to contain 1427 rare gold coins in uncirculated, mint condition.
The authenticity of the gold coins has been ascertained by the Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, with its co-founder David Hall saying that the coins dated back to the nineteenth century (from 1847 to 1894), reported a news agency.
Although, the face value of the gold coins is more than $28,000, some of them are rare enough to fetch nearly $1 million per coin, say coin experts.
Though much is not known about the whereabouts of the ‘golden’ stretch where the coins were unearthed, according to Kagin, the couple’s property is located in a hilly area of Gold Country, the same region that was the site of the Gold Rush in 1849.
“It’s like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” said the numismatist Don Kagin.
The couple will be loaning some coins to the American Numismatic Association for its annual show in Atlanta on Thursday before putting most of them up for sale.
