Conquistador Gold Found! 1937

[buscadero]

TIME JULY 26, 1937
Three Grizzled Prospectors, Arrin Thorpe, Joanes Van Steck, & Antonio Hill, weary from months of prospecting, stopped their Pack Burros near the Piedra Candela Settlements in the shadow of the Santa Maria Mts on the Costa Rican - Panamanian Border one day last week
prepared to lay out Claims.
Driving the 1st Claim Stake, the ground beneath their feet gave away & the trio dropped into an abandoned Mine Shaft. Before
their startled eyes, stood 35 Gold Ingots, Ea. weighing 50#, neatly stacked against the wall. Nearby lay equipment for Panning Gold & Relics of
the days of the Spanish Conquistadors.
Stumbling down the shaft, Van Steck came upon 45 additional Ingots, which he refused to share with his partners on guard.
The 80 Ingots, Each stamped with the Seal of the Spanish Royal Crown, are valued at $1.120M. ($22.880M @ Todays Prices). Dazzled
by so much wealth, Htll, along with the native drivers, fired @ Van Steck as he returned from the Settlement, missed & fled into the Mts.
Authorities of Chiriqui Province chartered Planes & flew to the Mine, to Investigate the Discovery, which under It's Buried Treasure Law, is entitled to half of the Prospectors Find. They then rushed a Police Guard to the scene to control a stampede of the TH'ing
Natives. Authorities believe that the Tunnel belonged to the near legendary La Estrella Mine, worked by the Spanish Conquerors.
Fabulously Rich, it became "Lost" in the passing of 400 yrs. The Indians, enraged by the cruel treatment of the Spanish, are
supposed to have ambushed a mule train, killed the White Men, & buried the Gold in the Tunnel.

Joe

 

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[Salvager]

Gee wiz.

Thats an AWESOME find!! and if I read right they legally got to keep half?!?!?
You can't whinge about $11.44Milion!!! I Can't believe someone got so greedy so quickly as to not share part of such a huge find with his own mates!!! Would have still been well OVER 3million bucks each!!!

Just makes you think!!!

 

[VICTORIO]

Was this the average weight of a spanish gold bar 50 pounds .How much would a 50 pound bar of gold be worth on today's market. Since they have the stamp of royalty could they be worth more than the gold in weight.

 

[buscadero]

Victorio: Welcome to the Net! Your Question: At 12 oz per Troy Pound, @ Today's Spot Gold Price: Ea Ingot would be worth $400,000!

HH Joe

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

=buscadero ]
Victorio: Welcome to the Net! Your Question: At 12 oz per Troy Pound, @ Today's Spot Gold Price: Ea Ingot would be worth $400,000! HH Joe
******************
Right on, but remember, the bars from that period prob only ran between 70o > 800 fine. not worth recovering ehehehehehe yeah, sigh.


Tropical Tramp

 

[buscadero]

TT: That only makes it an average of $300,000 per Ingot! Forget it! Not worth the trouble, Right?

Joe

 

[fossis]

Welcome VICTORIO, Fossis.....................

 

[TaxLawyer]

Sounds exactly like the gold under Victorio Peak that Doc Noss discovered in New Mexico before WW II. Stacked like wood, plus the cruelty of the Spaniards to the natives. Also coincidental is the greed and failure of the "partnership" accompanied by a shooting. A lot like the Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

refining was limited in the field and usually ran 500 to 540 fine. 540 would be 14 karat. Still worth a bunch. Perhaps with the royal crown mark it would be refined to a higher purity. regards, siegfried schlagrule

 

[VICTORIO]

Thank you for the answer buscandero. I'm currently working a site on a camino real. I wish I could say more. Real de tayopa it's an Honor for you to answer my Question. I am new to this site but I have been reading the forum for almost a year. I know Cptbil, Gollum, Oroblanco,Realde Tayopa and Marc are all very experienced. I have also been very impressed by mindhunter and his knowledge on "correct" history. One more question were most Spanish ingots approximatly 50 Lbs.

 

[gollum]

Was this the average weight of a spanish gold bar 50 pounds .How much would a 50 pound bar of gold be worth on today's market. Since they have the stamp of royalty could they be worth more than the gold in weight.

Typically, the larger gold ingots were 20 kilos (about 66 pounds). These were hard to handle and very unweildy. Most often when they were in remote areas, the Spanish rough cast "Dore" (dor-ee) bars (sometimes called "finger bars"). These were about 2-3 pounds each, and much easier to handle and load in burro packs for transport. Most often these were unrefined, and about .500 pure (called gold amalgam). This means the gold was still alloyed with other metals (like silver, copper, platinum, lead, etc.). They were further refined and stamped when they reached a larger city with an official assayer/refinery.

To answer your second question; YES! Their historical value would far exceed their gold value, if proven authentic. If recovered legally, their historical value would play a large part. If they were recovered secretly, they would be worth their gold content.

Best,

Mike

 

[kenb]

Great story Joe, where'd you come across the info if you dont mind me asking?

kenb

 

[buscadero]

Ken: This Site: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758026-1,00.html

Ken: Can I ask where you get all your great articles from? Do you spend days at a time on the Web?

Joe

 

[stevemc]

I am not sure where you got your info on the purity of gold back then, but the finger bars are all marked 22 carat back then. Same with the escudos.

 

[gollum]

I am not sure where you got your info on the purity of gold back then, but the finger bars are all marked 22 carat back then. Same with the escudos.

Sorry Steve,

MOST of the dore (dor-ee) bars in the outlands were not marked, as there were no royal assayers that far North. You may see shipwreck recovered finger bars that are stamped, but you will rarely ever find a cache of bars that are refined.

I have found several Spanish Gold Coins in the desert, and I don't recall any of them stamped with their purity. Also, how would someone with a mine in Primeria Alta (Arizona, NM, Texas, California) have their gold made into coins? The nearest mint was in Mexico City. See Steve, you are confusing shipwreck treasure recoveries and land based treasure recoveries. Here are the basic differences:

Land based gold/silver bars:
Raw ore was taken from the mines. Crushed in arrastras, and mixed with mercury to leach the valuable metals out of the rock. The resulting mixture was called amalgam. They were then heated in a smelter, and cast into rough dore bars. The dore bars were only as pure as the metals in the ore. Most natural gold ore runs 50-70% pure (the other metallic content commonly being silver,lead, copper, and platinum). There are some places where it is found almost pure (but that is not common). The used mercury was then poured down a rough copper trough or tube, which formed a thin layer of mercury on the surface of the copper. The waste rock from the arrastra was then poured down the trough to amalgamate any remaining gold/silver. These bars or rounds were cached in a cave or underground rock vault until the mining season was over. They were then loaded into oxcarts, or burro packsaddles, and transported South to Mexico City, or another larger city with assayers, refineries, and mints.

Shipwreck gold bars:
Once in these larger cities, they wouild take their gold/silver alloy bars and have them refined to a more pure state. Here, the refiner would stamp them with their purity, his mark, and whatever markings he was required to make by law, or turn them into coins (if there was a mint). It was also here, that the King's Royal Quint (20%) would be taken out. From here, they would be loaded onto galleons for transport back to Spain. We all know what happens next.

I have NEVER heard of ingots found in treasure troves that were stamped with their purity. I have heard of them cast with church markings, and the marks of their owners:

Best,

Mike

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Good information. 8)

 

[buscadero]

Thanks, Ken, I appreciate it!

HH Joe

 

[Oroblanco]

Update

There was a followup on the original article, I realize this thread is pretty old BUT this cache of gold appears to be STILL OUT THERE WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO FIND IT AGAIN! Here is the followup

Quote
In his palace in Panama last week sat sturdy little President Dr. Juan Demosthenes Arosemena, smiling contentedly. He had just received official messages from Oscar Teran, the Governor of Chiriqui Province, and Captain Nicolas Sagel of the Panama police confirming that three weatherbeaten prospectors, stumbling into an abandoned mine shaft, had found a huge number of 50-lb. gold ingots, worth not $1,120,000 as previously reported (TIME, July 26). but some $3,000,000.

Everything was nicely in hand, read the reports to the President. Thirty Panama troopers with machine guns were already guarding the treasure, half of which under Panama law belonged to the Government. Determined that there should be no hitch President Arosemena ordered his trusty chief of police, Colonel Manuel Pino, to take five planes and fly to David—nearest possible landing ground to the mine—to bring the bullion to Panama.

Before long a second report reached the President from Captain Sagel who by this time had arrived at the mine with the Governor of Chiriqui Province. He sent word that Joanes van Steck, one of the three prospectors—the other two were missing—had volunteered to lead the way into the gold-choked tunnel, where he had then inexplicably shot himself. There was nothing to worry about, said Sagel, because a Czechoslovak worker in the tunnel testified that he had seen the gold. The next report to reach the President, from Chief Pino, was slightly less encouraging. Arrin Thorpe, one of the two missing prospectors had been run to earth, had revealed that he had contributed $6,000 to van Steck's treasure hunt, but had not seen a speck of gold.

At this point Captain Sagel sent yet another message saying that so far as he could see the "abandoned mine tunnel" in which the gold was supposed to have been discovered was "nothing but a cleft in the river bed" and quite empty.

Irate President Arosemena, suspecting that he was the victim of a hoax, demanded to know why the Governor of Chiriqui and Captain Sagel had confirmed the "discovery" in the first place. He received the official explanation that "someone must have interpreted a message wrongly." This was too much for the President's patience. He dismissed both the Governor of Chiriqui and Captain Sagel, ordered a judicial inquiry.End quote
<From Time magazine, Gold Mess Monday, Aug. 02, 1937>

So do you think it was all a "hoax" or did the finders simply lie to protect their find? My money is on them re-burying most of it elsewhere, or that the government agents were led to the wrong site. What do you think?
Oroblanco

 

[Old Dog]

I agree with you Roy,
I think that is what I would have done.

Rebury the loot and quietly dissappear,
return and get my stuff after the hubbub died down.

Thom

 

[Oroblanco]

HOLA mi amigo Thom,

What has a "ring" to me is this tidbit,

He sent word that Joanes van Steck, one of the three prospectors—the other two were missing—had volunteered to lead the way into the gold-choked tunnel, where he had then inexplicably shot himself.

Van Steck shot himself, and one other partner claimed that he had invested money ($6000) but not seen a "speck" of gold? What does that sound like to you? It sounds to me rather like the original tale was TRUE, and that trouble arose among the partners - who wants to give up half of the treasure (the government cut) after all? They may not have even bothered to find a new hiding spot, just closed up the hole they had fallen in, and Van Steck then mis-led the government soldiers to..."nothing but a cleft in the river bed" and quite empty. Rather than give up the secret, Van Steck shot himself - or perhaps we ought to look at the soldiers who went with him, perhaps they tried to coerce him and ended up killing him?

Out of curiosity I browsed the area with Google Earth, kind of interesting that there just "happens" to be a tiny village named "La Estrella" not far from Piedra Candela. I wonder what the current laws are for prospecting and treasure hunting in Panama?
Roy ~ Oroblanco