A Sierra Nevada couple became $10 million richer after unearthing coins in their backyard in 2013, and plan to have them sold The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.
"It was a very surreal moment. It was very hard to believe at first," the man in the couple said in an interview The Chronicle reported. "I thought any second an old miner with a mule was going to appear." The couple is not revealing their names because they do not want other seekers tearing up their property The Chronicle reported.
The couple came across the coins while walking their dog, and noticing
"You hear all those Wild West stories of buried treasure, and you think they're fantasies well here, this one really did happen," Don Kagin, a person who negotiates coins in Tiburon, Calif told The Chronicle.
Kagin, and David McCarthy a coin studier who works with Kagin examined the coins and cans they were found in at the shop The Chronicle reported.
"And what is almost unbelievable about this collection is what pristine condition so many of them are in," Kagin told The Chronicle.
One thousand three hundred seventy three of the coins were $20 coins, with 50 being $10 coins, and four $5 change.
All of the money ranged from 1847 to 1894, and appeared just like new after one third of the change was still in good condition The Chronicle reported.
"The first thing the family did after finding all the cans was rebury them in a cooler under their woodpile," McCarthy told The Chronicle. "They were terrified and had to think about what to do."
McCarthy beautified one coin dating back to 1890 when he and Kagin met with the couple, two months after the couple found the keepsakes, had them excavated, and conversed with attorneys.
"I almost fell out of my chair. It was mind-blowing. I was literally sitting with the most amazing buried treasure I've ever heard of," McCarthy told The Chronicle.
The biggest coin turn up was in 1985 in Jackson, Tenn., The money worth $4,500 was dealt for $1 million.
