There is absolutely no way I’d have turned those in.
Edit: I found the article, the lad may have a payout coming to him.
It is now held in Brussels as authorities investigate its legal ownership. Belgian law mandates a five-year waiting period for claimants; afterward, the find could be divided between Kobe and the property owner if no owner comes forward and it’s not criminal money.
Hope he gets his due. I cannot fathom the mind that sees Fuck You-money and immediately thinks “oh gosh, I need to give this to a cop!” But I’m sure he meant well.
Yeah, if I found like a hundred thousand in cash, it wouldn’t get into a bank account, I’d just be buying groceries and retail purchases in cash for a long time, and saving the money I would have spent normally. Maybe asking places to make change so if the serial numbers get noted, things get spread about a bit.
A single bar? Chip off a 50g piece, re-melt it, sell it to a jeweler or cash-for-gold place. Rinse & repeat with enough time inbetween and never in the same location twice, and always for cash.
Multiple bars will either require a multi year plan or more… professional means.
I’d keep working my day job and melt them into basic jewelry like rings and crosses and pawn them over time. Say I’m getting them at estate sales or something. Use the cash for day to day purchases, buy used cars, etc. Could probably start flipping other stuff to generate more income/muddy the waters in case anyone does look further into it. Gradually work lesser amounts of cash into my bank account. Wouldn’t need to buy anything crazy because I have simple tastes.
Time legitimizes things too. Leave some to your grandkids in the will. Tell them to wait at least a decade before cashing anything in and then to not do it all at once. A decade or two and they’ll try to sell it, show the will as proof they own the gold. Where did grandpa himself get it from? Who the fuck knows, not like he gave us documents and it’s been too long to ask anyone who might know.
Unless the tax authority directly investigates then, they should be good.
He wasn’t alone when he found it. It was an entire construction team, building and digging on a municipally owned site which was publicly accessible and almost certainly monitored, if remotely.
There was no conceivable way to keep that find quiet under those circumstances.
So if he did manage to pinch off one, props to him.
Idk. If I lived in a place where healthcare was a right, in which I had reasonable expectations of having my basic needs met, where I felt I didn’t need to scramble day in day out just to survive …
Idk, I’d just hide them myself. Sell off a tiny bit at a time, keep working, invest in boring ass shit like index funds and when I get AML’d, I’d have a history of spending less than I earn to show. Hardest part would be finding a vendor to sell the gold to that’s reputable and won’t send goons to rob me, but also won’t hit me with AML. I suspect I have a few options available to me, but since I do not own any gold bars, I have no real way to test my theory.
I have a friend who used to do exactly this. He used to be a bit of a conspiracy nut and didn’t believe in the stability (or validity, for that matter) of the US dollar. He wanted to do all his monetary exchanges in gold and silver, which were very stable and reliable at the time (about 2 decades ago).
I don’t know how exactly, but he converted any cash he earned into gold and then worked out a deal with his local grocery store to buy his groceries with tiny bits of gold.
He was a good kid, if not a little dumb. I think the grocery store humored him. Besides, gold is valuable, so they may have been just ripping him off.
If he hoarded his gold instead of spent it, he’d be up about 100% over the last five years alone. Only crypto would’ve given that kind of return in the same time span, with far greater risk.
The irony of being called an idiot by someone so dim that “taking the bars to the grocery store” is the best they could come up with. I’m not even offended.
There is absolutely no way I’d have turned those in.
Edit: I found the article, the lad may have a payout coming to him.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katematthams/2026/08/15/summer-job-student-finds-gold-stash-worth-over-10-million/
Hope he gets his due. I cannot fathom the mind that sees Fuck You-money and immediately thinks “oh gosh, I need to give this to a cop!” But I’m sure he meant well.
Same, but probably difficult to turn $10M in gold into spending money without someone noticing.
Yeah, if I found like a hundred thousand in cash, it wouldn’t get into a bank account, I’d just be buying groceries and retail purchases in cash for a long time, and saving the money I would have spent normally. Maybe asking places to make change so if the serial numbers get noted, things get spread about a bit.
In the U.S., that would get you enough food for weeks!
Seriously. Loaded up on groceries this weekend, and total cost for 1.75 carts was well over $600
What the actual fuck is going on over there. My condolences
Just some minor societal collapse. Don’t worry, we’ll totally get better…
Honestly I’m hoping the feds collapse because frankly speaking they are the problem and I don’t see it getting better.
just everything being expensive because we pay the monetary price of the colonial wars our oligarch overlords enact abroad to enrich themselves
But… but trickle down?
Don’t forget any home improvement tasks. Need your yard leveled? Landscapers would love to give a slight cash discount.
Tree needs taking down? Cash.
Tuckpointing a chimney? Cash.
Annoyingly, you can’t actually use “cash” cash for a cash down payment on a house. Mortgage lenders like to know where the money is coming from.
Imagine doing that 98 times
That’s why you bury it in the backyard and only use little bits at a time.
But then you risk some kid digging it up and turning it in to the authorities.
The cycle continues
…“and I would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!”
How would you even go about turning a huge bar of gold into cash anyways?
A single bar? Chip off a 50g piece, re-melt it, sell it to a jeweler or cash-for-gold place. Rinse & repeat with enough time inbetween and never in the same location twice, and always for cash.
Multiple bars will either require a multi year plan or more… professional means.
I think it’s a case of ‘who you know’ in that line of work.
Ebay
10M spend bit by bit takes more than a life time
Should be plenty then.
Definately. More than one needs for survival :D
Best store it where no one will look: in the woodburner. Dont tell anyone.
I’d keep working my day job and melt them into basic jewelry like rings and crosses and pawn them over time. Say I’m getting them at estate sales or something. Use the cash for day to day purchases, buy used cars, etc. Could probably start flipping other stuff to generate more income/muddy the waters in case anyone does look further into it. Gradually work lesser amounts of cash into my bank account. Wouldn’t need to buy anything crazy because I have simple tastes.
It’s work, but the hourly rate’s not bad.
He could get it fenced for about 30-50% of its market value.
Exactly, even if he kept 1 bar any place he could legally exchange it will have to give the appropriate tax documents since its such a high amount
I thought gold was soft enough to be easily cut by a lot of other more common metals
True, but you would have to do it so slowly to avoid detection. Small pieces over years maybe decades to avoid detection
Still comes out to a lifechanging amount of money for most people, I would think. Maybe some bars left over for your descendants
Time legitimizes things too. Leave some to your grandkids in the will. Tell them to wait at least a decade before cashing anything in and then to not do it all at once. A decade or two and they’ll try to sell it, show the will as proof they own the gold. Where did grandpa himself get it from? Who the fuck knows, not like he gave us documents and it’s been too long to ask anyone who might know.
Unless the tax authority directly investigates then, they should be good.
He wasn’t alone when he found it. It was an entire construction team, building and digging on a municipally owned site which was publicly accessible and almost certainly monitored, if remotely.
There was no conceivable way to keep that find quiet under those circumstances.
So if he did manage to pinch off one, props to him.
I mean… Ten million can buy a LOT of assassins.
Idk. If I lived in a place where healthcare was a right, in which I had reasonable expectations of having my basic needs met, where I felt I didn’t need to scramble day in day out just to survive …
Probably a lot less suspicious than going to a bank trying to store 49 gold bars
Idk, I’d just hide them myself. Sell off a tiny bit at a time, keep working, invest in boring ass shit like index funds and when I get AML’d, I’d have a history of spending less than I earn to show. Hardest part would be finding a vendor to sell the gold to that’s reputable and won’t send goons to rob me, but also won’t hit me with AML. I suspect I have a few options available to me, but since I do not own any gold bars, I have no real way to test my theory.
Yeah he should have just brought them to the grocery store and paid with them. Idiot.
I have a friend who used to do exactly this. He used to be a bit of a conspiracy nut and didn’t believe in the stability (or validity, for that matter) of the US dollar. He wanted to do all his monetary exchanges in gold and silver, which were very stable and reliable at the time (about 2 decades ago).
I don’t know how exactly, but he converted any cash he earned into gold and then worked out a deal with his local grocery store to buy his groceries with tiny bits of gold.
He was a good kid, if not a little dumb. I think the grocery store humored him. Besides, gold is valuable, so they may have been just ripping him off.
If he hoarded his gold instead of spent it, he’d be up about 100% over the last five years alone. Only crypto would’ve given that kind of return in the same time span, with far greater risk.
Wow. So if he had gone without food his couple of hundreds of dollars worth of gold would have been worth a couple hundred more dollars right now.
But in terms of use as currency what he was getting ripped off by was whoever was exchanging the gold.
The irony of being called an idiot by someone so dim that “taking the bars to the grocery store” is the best they could come up with. I’m not even offended.
Breathe. Not you.
You said you wouldn’t turn them in. So what would you do with them? How would you even begin to spend them?
… Sell them?
You’ll have to be creative, but I guarantee there are ways to keep at least half, maybe all the value, selling it off piece by piece.