We're in the Dead Zone for a Snowmobile Website. With temps up around 90 in the shade, it's hard to get excited over New Models, the Best Oil, and planned trips. Therefore, our interests may wander at this time of year. Some on here know that I dabble in Civil War history. I've been to several battlefields and have scores of books on the subject so when I came across the following, I thought it worthy of sharing. Besides, everyone likes a good story of Lost Treasure so fire up Doc Brown's Delorean as we travel back in time to 1863.
A cache of more than 800 Civil War-era gold coins were recently unearthed in a Kentucky cornfield — a treasure worth millions that experts are calling one of the greatest finds of the 21st century.
"It's hard to put this in context because there are so few instances of coins of this nature with this level of rarity being found in the ground in the United States," Andrew Salzberg, executive vice president of the Numismatic Guaranty Company’s (NGC) Certified Collectibles Group, told Fox News Digital.
NGC, a third-party grading service for coins, tokens and medals based in Sarasota, Florida, certified the coins — dubbed the "Great Kentucky Hoard" — and valued them at more than $2 million.
Jeff Garrett, owner of Mid-American Rare Coin Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky, was the recipient of an email from the anonymous discoverer.
"Someone wanted me to look at an 1863 Double Eagle, which is a very rare coin," Garrett told Fox News Digital.
"It’s just a scarce coin just because of the year… lower mintage during the Civil War," he said.
"So, I agreed to meet at the office. And then when we met in the office, he showed me several more of the coins."
The story behind who buried the coins, and why, is something Salzberg said he finds fascinating.
"Back in those days, you couldn’t always go to a bank or put them in a safe or store them in a vault," he said.
"Nothing was really available to somebody looking to hide their wealth, so the best way to do it was to bury it in the ground."
Ryan McNutt, a conflict archeologist at Georgia Southern University, said he specializes in analyzing "all the stuff that's left behind when people engage in trying to kill each other."
"There is a big spike in the hoarding of coins in the American Civil War," McNutt told Fox News Digital, while also mentioning the economic issues that occurred during that time.
Kentucky, McNutt explained, was neutral territory during the war.
"There's lots of guerrilla activity, there's lots of both Union military activity and Confederate military activity — and particularly at the time it seems like the coins must have been deposited, because it's got to be about 1863, maybe 1864," he said.
"They may have been trading, buying, selling or had some kind of business interests that are aligned with the Union, which Confederate supporters and soldiers were taking a pretty dim view of," he said, adding that may be why it was hidden.
Another possibility involves Nathan Bedford Forest, who also raided Kentucky in 1864, McNutt said, adding that the story behind the coins is purely speculative, especially since the exact location of the coin hoard is unknown.
Why the owner of the coins never came back to claim them is another chapter in the story, McNutt said. (NGC)
"It’s difficult to say exactly what war-related activity caused it, but it does seem that probably the motive behind hiding this money is civil unrest, conflict, raids coming through," he said.
Why the owner of the coins never came back to claim them is another chapter in the story, McNutt said.
"Maybe [the person] died, maybe they were forced off their land," he said.
"It's a truly historic and rare find," Salzberg told Fox News Digital. (NGC)
McNutt said he calculated the hoard to have been worth about $1,000 in 1864, which at the time would've been equivalent to several years' worth of annual income.
"So, it is a chunk of money," he said.
"That makes me speculate that whoever buried it probably died and wasn't able to go back for it."
A cache of more than 800 Civil War-era gold coins were recently unearthed in a Kentucky cornfield — a treasure worth millions that experts are calling one of the greatest finds of the 21st century.
"It's hard to put this in context because there are so few instances of coins of this nature with this level of rarity being found in the ground in the United States," Andrew Salzberg, executive vice president of the Numismatic Guaranty Company’s (NGC) Certified Collectibles Group, told Fox News Digital.
NGC, a third-party grading service for coins, tokens and medals based in Sarasota, Florida, certified the coins — dubbed the "Great Kentucky Hoard" — and valued them at more than $2 million.
Jeff Garrett, owner of Mid-American Rare Coin Gallery in Lexington, Kentucky, was the recipient of an email from the anonymous discoverer.
"Someone wanted me to look at an 1863 Double Eagle, which is a very rare coin," Garrett told Fox News Digital.
"It’s just a scarce coin just because of the year… lower mintage during the Civil War," he said.
"So, I agreed to meet at the office. And then when we met in the office, he showed me several more of the coins."
The story behind who buried the coins, and why, is something Salzberg said he finds fascinating.
"Back in those days, you couldn’t always go to a bank or put them in a safe or store them in a vault," he said.
"Nothing was really available to somebody looking to hide their wealth, so the best way to do it was to bury it in the ground."
Ryan McNutt, a conflict archeologist at Georgia Southern University, said he specializes in analyzing "all the stuff that's left behind when people engage in trying to kill each other."
"There is a big spike in the hoarding of coins in the American Civil War," McNutt told Fox News Digital, while also mentioning the economic issues that occurred during that time.
Kentucky, McNutt explained, was neutral territory during the war.
"There's lots of guerrilla activity, there's lots of both Union military activity and Confederate military activity — and particularly at the time it seems like the coins must have been deposited, because it's got to be about 1863, maybe 1864," he said.
"They may have been trading, buying, selling or had some kind of business interests that are aligned with the Union, which Confederate supporters and soldiers were taking a pretty dim view of," he said, adding that may be why it was hidden.
Another possibility involves Nathan Bedford Forest, who also raided Kentucky in 1864, McNutt said, adding that the story behind the coins is purely speculative, especially since the exact location of the coin hoard is unknown.
Why the owner of the coins never came back to claim them is another chapter in the story, McNutt said. (NGC)
"It’s difficult to say exactly what war-related activity caused it, but it does seem that probably the motive behind hiding this money is civil unrest, conflict, raids coming through," he said.
Why the owner of the coins never came back to claim them is another chapter in the story, McNutt said.
"Maybe [the person] died, maybe they were forced off their land," he said.
"It's a truly historic and rare find," Salzberg told Fox News Digital. (NGC)
McNutt said he calculated the hoard to have been worth about $1,000 in 1864, which at the time would've been equivalent to several years' worth of annual income.
"So, it is a chunk of money," he said.
"That makes me speculate that whoever buried it probably died and wasn't able to go back for it."