The title for "luckiest people of 2014" most likely goes to one California couple who discovered rare gold coins worth millions of dollars buried under a tree.
The couple, from Seirra Nevada, was walking their dog on their property last year when they saw the top of an old canister sticking out from the ground beneath a tree, the SFGate.com reported Tuesday.
The couple, who are in their 40s and live in Gold County, dug up the canister with a stick and took it inside their home. The canister contained a set of $20 gold coins, covered in dirt with a liberty head design on the front. When the couple returned to the area, they continued to dig, and discovered eight more canisters containing 1, 427 coins.
The coins, minted in the United States between 1847 and 1894, were valued at $27, 980. However the couple plans to sell the coins in an upcoming auction, which are expected to go for at least $10 million, SFGate.com reported. The discovery is believed to be the biggest collection of coins ever found in the U.S.
"It was a very surreal moment," the man said, according to SFGate.com. The couple wished to remain anonymous. "It was very hard to believe at first. I thought any second an old miner with a mule was going to appear."
Most of the collection, named the Saddle Ridge Hoard, after the couple's property, was made in San Francisco. Most of the coins were also in perfect condition, perhaps due to the fact that the coins were made of gold, which does not rot. Over a thousand of the coins were worth $20, 50 of the coins were worth $10, and four were $5 coins, SFGate.com reported.
"You hear all those Wild West stories of buried treasure, and you think they're fantasies- well here, this one really did happen," said Don Kagin, the coin dealer who appraised the couple's coins, SFGate reported. Kagin is a notable coin dealer who has appraised some of the most valuable discoveries in history.
"I almost fell out of my chair," Kagin said about when he first sat down to look at the coins, SFGate.com reported. "It was mind-blowing. I was literally sitting with the most amazing buried treasure I've ever heard of."
The coins will debut on Thursday at the American Numismatic Association's National Money Show in Atlanta before they are sold, the Associated Press reported.
