In 1933, the US Government minted about 445,000 $20 gold coins (called Double Eagles). The coins were never released to the public, and the US Mint destroyed all but two (at least that’s what they had been tasked to do). As luck would have it, twenty of the coins were later identified as having survived (nineteen of which were recovered by the US Secret Service). One coin is known to have been sold to a private collector for more than $7 million.
Now imagine you’re rummaging through the artifacts of your grandmother who recently passed away. In her younger days, she’d agreed to hold a box for a lad who worked at the US Mint, but the lad died during World War II and the box had long since been forgotten. Low and behold, you find the box, and it’s filled with ten 1933 Double Eagle Coins.
If you play your cards right, you can parlay the box into more than $70 million, but if you screw up, the US Secret Service will confiscate the coins. Now I ask you, how do you go about finding buyers without letting the Feds know what you’ve found?
What am I asking? You’d never try to sell the coins. You’d contact the authorities immediately, right?
