"Saddle Ridge" gold coins are on Amazon

[mjp]

You may have heard about the California couple who found more than 1,400 gold coins from the 1800s buried in old cans on their property.

Well now you can buy some of the coins on Amazon! The prices range from a little under $3000 (whoops, those are all gone now) to this set, which I recommend, at 2.75 million.

It's really quite an astounding story, and if I was the coin buying type, I'd certainly buy one of the coins from the stash, just as a historical curiosity.

 

[d gray]

last thing i read was that the coins were suspected to be stolen and they would probably have to give them back.

off to read the article...

 

[mjp]

Looks like I linked to an old article. As much as it pains me, I changed the link to point to wikipedia.

The coins were all vetted and the U.S. government said they had no interest in them. So, not stolen, finders keepers. $10+ million, buried next to a tree.

Following the initial discovery of the coins, there was widespread speculation that the hoard represented the discovery of the 1901 theft of $30,000 from the San Francisco Mint by employee Walter Dimmick. Kagin's and the U.S. Mint ruled out this theory, stating that the Saddle Ridge Hoard is unlikely to be part of the mint heist, due to the diversity in the face value and condition of the coins. On March 4, 2014, The U.S. Mint stated that "[they] do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility", and "[they've] done quite a bit of research, and we've got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we'd be going after it."​

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Cool story, and the mint theft theory is hurt by the inclusion of circulated (albeit lightly for the most part) coins along with mint state pieces. While I can see some premium being attached to these for historical value, the prices of the more common dates (e.g., 1882-S) are stupidly high. Market value for an 1882-S $20 gold piece in PCGS-slabbed AU-55 is about $1,525. There are about 12 of these listed on Amazon for $3,500-$3,650. I'd be surprised if they sold one of them at those prices.

 

[mjp]

I don't think they're targeting hard core numismatists with those things. If they were, they would have all been sold through the dealer (without the hokey wooden box) rather than through a splashy launch on Amazon.

I think the dealer made a smart move, considering the circumstances. It was a big new story, and (I would think) there are a lot of non-coin collectors who will buy one of those just to have it. The under-$2000 coins all sold while I was making the first post in this thread.

Of course most of the rest are still sitting there. I would guess that if you really wanted one and waited a few months you could get it from the dealer at substantially less than the current Amazon prices.