nagpurpolice Chapter 756 489: Double Eagle Gold Coin (Part 2)
Chapter 756 489: Double Eagle Gold Coin (Part 2)
Pushing aside those brambles, there were no traces of excavation on the ground, proving that this place hadn't been visited by gold seekers, possibly because it's far from the river channel.Back then, the method of gold mining was outdated, without detectors and such tools. Gold seekers, upon hearing rumors of gold somewhere, would swarm in and then look for nearby river channels, digging gravel from the riverbed or sandbars, washing them in water, so it was crucial to have a nearby water source.
"This is it, get the tools ready for work."
Brother Quan knocked Buck out with one blow, then followed An Zai and the others with excavation and portable detection tools.
"Dig here, there's a cave nearby where coins buried by people from last century are hidden," Qi Yun pointed to a section on the left of the slope.
Brother Quan and the rest didn't ask much, immediately starting to act.
The coins seemed to be buried quite deep, as the metal detector did a sweep without any indication, so they'd have to dig first to find out.
Qi Yun also rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a soldier's shovel, and joined the digging effort.
The soil quality of this slope was harder than expected, mixed with a lot of gravel and clay.
Anyone who's dealt with corpses knows that digging holes here is not easy, even if it was backfilled back then, after so long, it has become compacted.
Five soldier's shovels turned over and over, the soil and gravel continuously thrown behind them. After over two hours, they finally dug a pit over half a meter deep and two square meters in area.
Brother Quan brought the metal detector again, and this time the device reacted, beeping "di-di-di."
"The location is correct, it's here!" Qi Yun's spirit lifted.
Everyone, hearing this, sped up their actions, digging down about another twenty centimeters, the shovel made a "clang" sound, encountering something.
"Found something!" An Zai shouted excitedly.
Using the shovel to clear away the layer of sand, revealing a dark wooden board, reinforced with strips of iron, seemingly the lid of a wooden box.
Qi Yun forcefully jabbed the wooden board with the shovel, and with a creak, a crack appeared in the middle. Then prying upwards, a large piece of the board came off.
It was indeed a wooden box, filled with objects wrapped in oil paper.
Casually peeling off a layer of oil paper, a gleaming golden light shone on the face - they were neatly stacked gold coins!
"Damn, they're really gold coins!" An Zai exclaimed in surprise.
Qi Yun also showed delight on his face, the coins were preserved extremely well, with no fading, nor peeling like some museum gold artifacts.
He picked up a coin for close inspection, and after a moment, his breathing began to quicken, his fingers even trembled a bit!
It seemed like he'd seen these in reports...
Both sides of the coin had designs, with the front showing a profile of the goddess of liberty wearing a crown, with "LIBERTY" inscribed on the crown, surrounded by 13 stars, likely representing the 13 states at the founding of the United States, with the year 1850 marked below.
The back design showed an eagle spreading its wings, holding an olive branch and arrows in its talons, surrounded by "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," and the denomination "TWENTY D." below.
This type of coin is precisely the most famous double eagle coin in United States history.
Leaving aside its current value, even back then, a 20 US Dollar double eagle coin was quite a fortune, and if calculated by purchasing power, it would be at least equivalent to a thousand bucks now.
In 1849, the gold rush erupted in California, with large amounts of gold being discovered, prompting the United States Congress to authorize the minting of these coins in 1850.
1850 marked the start of their minting, hence this double eagle coin holds significant historical symbolism.
Moreover, what truly elevated it to the pinnacle was during the Great Depression of 1933 in the United States.
That year, President Roosevelt abandoned the gold standard and signed an executive order mandating the public to turn in their gold and cease the conversion of dollars into gold;
He also ordered all double eagle coins that had been minted but not yet issued to be melted down and reformed into gold bars.
Therefore, since 1933, the number of existing double eagle coins became extremely scarce.
And as coins minted in 1850 being the starting year, they are absolutely precious rarities!
Qi Yun had seen a report once about Egyptian King Farouk, who received special permission from the US Treasury Department to legitimize a 1933 unissued double eagle coin for public auction, eventually selling for 7.6 million US dollars!
Even if these coins here can't match the special status of 1933, their value shouldn't be far off.
"Phew~ brothers, we're hitting it big this time!" Qi Yun took a deep breath, needing to calm down from the excitement.
The others were all smiles as well, having struck gold with their boss once again.
Xiao Wu took out a box from his backpack and began packing.
Aside from the coins, the wooden box also contained various shaped gold chunks, their surfaces uneven, mixed with many inclusions, their color ranging from dark yellow to nearly red gold, obviously products of personal melting endeavors, likely not pure gold.
At the bottom of the box, there were also a certain quantity of gold sand wrapped in cloth strips.
Just these wooden boxes, in the end, Qi Yun and team dug out three in total.
Upon counting, there were over two hundred pieces of double eagle coins, and combined, the other gold chunks and sand weighed about a thousand kilograms.
Just calculating by the weight of gold alone, the value reached 80 million US Dollars! Truly a rewarding trip.
Loading all the gold onto the vehicle, the group prepared to leave.
Buck, who'd been knocked unconscious, had long since woken up, but with his hands and feet tied, thrown in the truck bed, he had no idea what had happened outside.
Brother Quan put the goods in the back of the Raptor truck, then walked over, drew a pistol from his waist, and asked Qi Yun, "Shall we deal with him here?"
Buck immediately panicked, struggling to get up: "No! Boss! You promised not to kill me! God is watching you!"
Though he didn't understand what Brother Quan had said earlier, the action of drawing a gun and his cold gaze explained everything.
Qi Yun looked at the terrified Buck, showing no particular expression: "You're right. Although I don't believe in God, I value credibility highly. If I said I won't kill you, I definitely won't."
As he spoke, he opened the car door and sat inside, feeling joyful as he lit a cigarette.
Upon hearing this, Buck's tense nerves were about to relax, when suddenly Brother Quan reached over and lifted him up, then tossed him to the ground, dragging him by one leg towards the pit they had dug.
"What are you doing! What are you going to do! Boss said you won't kill me!"
"No! Don't! Stop! Please!"
Buck screamed and struggled in despair, but with his hands and feet bound tightly, he couldn't muster any strength.
"Relax, boss said he won't kill you, and he definitely won't kill you," replied Brother Quan, expressionless, exerting force to drag Buck to the edge of the big pit they had just excavated, then kicked him into it.
"Bang——!"
A gunshot rang out, and Buck stopped screaming.
The two Raptors started up, retracing the original path, and when they passed the site from that morning, they found the bodies and those wrecked pickup trucks had disappeared, even the bloodstains on the ground had been cleaned up.
The efficient aftermath work once again impressed Qi Yun with Major Carlson's influence.
With money paving the way, indeed, things go smoothly.
Without pausing, they returned to the town, got on those two off-road vehicles, and headed onto the interstate highway.
....
By evening, the group arrived in Billings City, the largest city in Montana. Qi Yun decided to rest here for a while before heading to Alaska.
After checking into a local hotel, Qi Yun took a shower, washed away the fatigue of the day, then lay on the sofa to research the matters concerning these treasures.
These double eagle coins surely couldn't be put up for auction, as reputable auction houses like Christie's, Sotheby's, and Heritage have strict procedures for checking the source of auction items, and this is not only an industry standard but also a legal requirement.
If the auction items don't draw much attention, there might still be room for maneuver.
But items like double eagle coins are extremely rare, and given the quantity, once news gets out, it will inevitably attract immense attention.
So there are only two choices: either sell them on the black market or privately contact collectors for transactions.