What Would You Do If You Found A Stash of Gold Bars...but?

AusTexDude said:
Scenario...

You're detecting on your property and come across a stash of twenty 50LB solid gold bars. With some research you find that they most likely were stolen from a Wells Fargo stagecoach by bandits close to 100 years ago. Wells Fargo is still in business and could possibly demand they be returned. To make matters worse you live in a small town with one bank, a Wells Fargo, where the local judge and city officials bank. The bank has considerable pull in your community.

You have not told anyone yet you have found them, not even your closest friends and family.

What's your next move?

View attachment 960276
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Next move is to MOVE somewhere else, QUICKLY
 

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Jason in Enid said:
Why engage in meaningless hypotheticals? Worry about that when it happens, because there is a 99.9999999% chance you will never find more than a few ounces total in your detecting life.
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Why are you then engaging a meaningless thread about hypotheticals?

The irony of someone engaging a thread about hypotheticals... You are the one who clicked the thread... you did not have to. It's called free will and if I choose to post a thread with a hypoithetical situation then I will.

Maybe meaningless TO YOU, but as of this moment 19 likes says oterwise. Some people do have imaginations.
 

Lemme give you some advice from Archie Bunker - - -" Shuuuut Up you meat head, you!!!"
 

I'd melt them into zombucks and buy some panning equipment then report my profits on taxes boom.
 

AusTexDude said:
Why are you then engaging a meaningless thread about hypotheticals?

The irony of someone engaging a thread about hypotheticals... You are the one who clicked the thread... you did not have to. It's called free will and if I choose to post a thread with a hypoithetical situation then I will.

Maybe meaningless TO YOU, but as of this moment 19 likes says oterwise. Some people do have imaginations.
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And some people would really would like to discuss and hear different opinions based upon their situation (true or false) of what they have FOUND.
 

first get an expert lawyer to research the laws. he can't report it and you will know the jail line
 

I'd go to Switzerland...
 

I think what I would do is melt down just enough to pay for a plot of land up in Alaska, the tools I need, and money to live off of for 7 years. I'd make sure to have 100% mineral rights to the land. I would find me a nice deep crack in the rocks, melt the whole lot of gold at once, then pour it into the crack system. I'd then cover it up with dirt and saturate the area with 1000s of gallons of water to suck all the dirt down around the gold vein. Then I would add another layer of dirt and plant some fast growing trees and vegetation over the area.

In 7 years I would "Strike" gold. Any "Experts" I brought in would be on the payroll and conclude (for a hefty fee) that it's a natural vein.
 

I dont really think the banks had insurance at that time, at least the depositors were not insured. Melting it down and making nuggets? An assay would say that it was refined gold, not natural nuggets. Better to talk to a lawyer, although most of us hate lawyers.
 

At $1200 an ounce, that would be over 14,000,000 dollars. I know guys that buy gold, but none of them have that kind of money. Stop and really think about it, that would be a real problem staying under cover and selling that much gold. Coins are one thing, but refined gold doesn't come that way in nature. However with that kind of money, I think a person could purchase the equipment to melt and mix to lower the karat weight in the gold to make it look like it came from a mine. Doing all that on the Q T would be almost mission impossible, then once help is hired, the cats out of the bag. It would be fun to have that problem though, the worse would be taxes, somehow you would have to make it legal so taxes could be paid, otherwise that's where the jail time would come in to the picture. In this day and age you can't spend lots of cash without drawing attention, first thoughts are drug dealers, and the investigation starts. There is an amount of money now, I don't know how much, but banks are required to turn you in if you deposit over a certain amount of cash, 10 or 20 grand, something like that. Don't tell me you have 14,000,000 and you are only going to spend a few thousand a year. That's not realistic. Yup, that amount of refined gold could pose a real problem, and greed could get jail time. Oh yeah, the taxes would be 55% feds, a bunch more to the state, and that keeps going up with the bunch that's in office now. To be very honest, don't know what I'd do, and it aint going to happen anyhow, so I'm going to bed and see if I can dream up an answer.
 

Did you hear about the last ones I found?

Exactly.

Loose lips sink ships.

Why try to liquidate them all at once or with the same entity. There is a legacy for descendents as well.

But, if you must sell, I have to recommend selling into the dental supply industry.

:)
 

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Flounder said:
I stopped here. It's your property, and everything in or on it conveyed in the sale.

No?
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There is a wrinkle in this scenario.... Here in Texas, they have been drilling into the local shale for natural gas and companies leasing or purchasing mineral rights from homeowners. It was BIG business here for about five years straight.

If anything like this was found on these properties, technically, it would own to the company who holds a lease on the mineral rights.
 

There is lots of money to be made talking about finding a treasure, don't forget that simple fact...
 

Lets say I found these gold bars, and then paid around 50% in tax. So far you are left with around $7 million out of the original $14 million. Then lets imagine what would happen when this news was released to the media! You would be inundated with offers from every talk show on the planet to talk about your adventure. Probably $50K a pop, and that's being conservative! Then imagine the money from the book you write, or the TV show that you are involved in, etc. There are many ways to make money off of found treasure that do not involve profiting from the treasure itself...
 

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