The stern man came back with five other people. It was a mix of men and women and they all had similar equipment. Jenny and I had to move to the side of the room with the man handling my case as the examiners entered, then one of them let out an excited squeal. To my surprise, it was one of the men.
“That is not what I think it is!” The man in question said in a high pitched and excited voice. He bounced a little on the balls of his feet and looked from the stern man to the gold.
“Grab a pile and get to work.” The stern man said.
“IEE!” The man said and practically pushed the others out of the way, grabbed one of the round stacks, and pulled it to the side of the table. He sat down in my vacated chair and barely managed to keep the coins from falling over in his excitement.
“I told you not to bring him.” A woman said and sat down in Jenny's chair. “He's too excitable when he sees new coins.”
“He's the best at coin recognition.” The stern man said and sat down behind the desk. He pulled over one of the stacks and began examining them. The guards brought in more chairs for everyone and the examiners all sat around the desk and began working.
“How long does something like this take?” I whispered to the man handling my case.
“I've never had someone make three million in solid gold appear out of nowhere, so I have no idea.” Mr. Graham said. “Were you planning to do this the whole time?”
“Not at all.” I said. “I was only going to do the one stack of ten coins to impress you, then realized it wasn't enough for you to take seriously.”
“So you did the round stack.” Mr. Graham said.
I nodded. “When you brought in the expert, I knew he wanted to see if they were all gold and not just replicas or fool's gold, so...”
“...you made sure he had a large enough of a sample size.” Mr. Graham nodded. “I see.”
“I think you do.” I said and he looked at me. “You remembered what I said about the possibility of needing to use illegal means.”
“I did, and that is not something my government can condone or approve of.” Mr. Graham said. “Bringing one of these coins to a pawn shop to pawn or sell, would be a strain on the economy.”
“What? Really?” I asked and he nodded. “Can you tell me why?”
“Our currency used to be held to the gold standard. We had gold worth a set amount of money, printed that much money to represent it, and that became the basis for our economy. There was never any currency above and beyond what we could physically represent with gold.”
“Used to be.” I said, catching the key phrase.
“Now? The dollar bill is actually based on trust. People trust that a little piece of paper... well, a fibrous representation of paper... is actually worth what's printed on it. They exchange goods and services for that trust, knowing that when presented, that little piece of paper is worth what they believe it is worth.”
“Oh, wow.” Jenny whispered.
“It gets better.” Mr. Graham said. “People used to buy gold and keep it stashed away. Now they buy dollar bills and stash them.”
“But... then that means...”
“Gold prices fluctuate quite a lot, depending on the demand. It can rise or fall by hundreds of dollars in a given month. How much does the dollar fluctuate?” Mr. Graham asked.
“It doesn't.” Jenny said.
“Exactly. A dollar is worth a dollar. If we still had a gold standard, then a dollar could be worth anywhere from a dime to ten dollars... on average... and it would change every day.”
“That means I might need to pay more to get the coin back from a pawn shop, assuming I didn't sell it outright.”
“They would never give anywhere near the actual value.” Mr. Graham said. “They are in the business to make money. If you sold it, they would turn it over into ready cash instantly.”
“Because a dollar is always worth a dollar and they could lose money if they kept it.” I said.
Mr. Graham nodded. “I can't even imagine the mess you would have caused if you had tried to smelt it into gold bars and tried to sell it.”
Jenny chuckled and the man looked at her. “Our mother warned him to not commit any crimes.”
“Your mother is a smart woman.” Mr. Graham said and Jenny nodded.
“I can't tell where these are from.” One of the women said. “What was the writing on it again?”
I walked over and pointed to each section. “One Crown. King Lasham's Kingdom. First Minting. Year 926.”
“You can read this?” The woman asked, shocked.
“I can read and write it.” I said and took a piece of paper from the notepad on the desk, then used a pen to write out the same thing with the English translation underneath. I even added arrows to indicate what words were what. Everyone at the table had stopped what they were doing and stared at me and the paper.
“Perhaps a word with the cryptology department might be in order.” Mr. Graham said.
“It's one guy in a cubicle.” The woman who asked about the translation said. “You would have to go to the capital to find an actual department.”
“He would still like to see it.” One of the others said and she shrugged.
It took them half an hour to check all of the coins. They even took random scrapings from several coins in different spots to test that it was actually gold. To my satisfaction, they were all in agreement that the gold was actually real and the coins, wherever they were from, were authentic. They were also minted from the same mold, which made them identical.
“Thank you.” Mr. Graham said and I stepped forward to gather them up.
“I'm sorry. I can't let you leave the building with these coins.” The stern man said as he stood and stopped me from touching the stacks of coins. “This much gold being let out onto the streets would destroy the local economy.”
I chuckled. “There's no way anyone would accept a gold coin as currency or give me what they are actually worth.”
“That's neither here nor there.” The stern man said. “You have over three million dollars in actual gold. If word of it gets out that there is gold in the country that's not stored in the federal reserve...”
“I believe he understands the gravity of the situation.” Mr. Graham said. “We can have him sign documents that state he can't use them as currency or sell them.”
The stern man shook his head. “Even that is fallible. I can't in good conscience...”
“What if I stored my gold in the federal reserve?” I asked and Jenny caught her breath.
“A private citizen can't put gold in...”
“At the moment, I'm legally dead.” I said and the new people in the room gasped.
The man who squealed in delight at the gold coins before, squealed in fright this time.
“What can we do with that knowledge?” I asked.
The stern man exchanged looks with Mr. Graham and had to reluctantly nod.
“I believe that... as a person that does not currently have the inalienable rights provided to all citizens of this great country of ours... it would be advisable for someone of your status to invest in the country you want to become a member of.”
“Is three million in gold enough of an investment?” I asked and waved at the desk that was practically covered in gold coins that had been spread out. “That is, I'd like to get some monetary benefits if I invest a significant amount of gold to add to the treasury.”
“We will still need time to trace the currency back to a possible source, if it exists.” The stern man said.
“I'm going to be in legal limbo for a couple of weeks at least.” I said and glanced at Mr. Graham, who nodded. “Until I can have my status restored, you can investigate all you want. However, I assume whatever investment I make needs to be done within that time frame.”
“That would be wise.” The stern man said and looked at the table. “I will need to arrange a secure transportation method for this treasure trove of new gold.”
“As long as it's all there.” I said and the excitable man's face flushed red. “One thousand and one coins should be there, if you include the one I submitted for more extensive testing.” I looked at my sister. “What was gold selling for this morning?”
“Fifteen hundred and fifty three dollars and twenty cents.” Jenny responded without looking it up.
I chuckled. “I'll knock off the twenty cents, so that's... three point one million dollars.”
“It's also about a hundred and thirty pounds.” The excitable man said. “Where did you get it?”
“I earned every single one.” I said.
The man gave me a look that said he wanted to know exactly how I had earned it. I had a flash of Divine Sight and saw him on his knees with a gold coin balanced on his forehead with his mouth wide open and ready for me, because he wanted to earn the coin.
I physically slapped myself on both cheeks and shook my head to get rid of the vision, because that was not the kind of earning I meant. “I'll donate one to each member of your department for doing an outstanding job... and for not lying and claiming that they were fake, just so you could keep them without compensating me.”
“We would never...” The woman started to say, then she understood what I meant. “Oh. Yes, I suppose that would have been a smart way to confiscate them.”
I took out a gold coin and gave it to her first, then handed one to each of the other four examiners. “You earned this.” I said as I gave the last one to the excitable man. His eyes flicked from my face to my crotch and back again. I shook my head slightly and he shrugged slightly in return. Whew. I thought in relief and looked at the stern man. “If you have to damage the first one too much to check the metal content, I should give you another one.” I took out another and gave it to him.
“This could be seen as a blatant bribe.” The stern man said.
“Bribing you gets me nothing.” I said and he gave me an odd look. “I didn't ask for anything, did I?”
The stern man lost the look and nodded.
“Assuming everything is okay so far, where can I get a loan against my initial investment?” I asked.
“Initial?” Mr. Graham and the stern man asked at the same time.
“You don't think this is all the gold I have, do you?” I waved at the table. “You said you wanted me to show you some of what I could do.”
“For god's sake, Damon! Shut up!” Jenny exclaimed and I winced. “Mr. Graham, if you would be so kind as to recommend a federal bank where three million in gold can be levied against a sizable loan.”
Mr. Graham looked from my sister to me. “I do have some connections with the local branch of the federal bank.”
“Would storing the gold there be agreeable until proper transportation can be acquired?” Jenny asked.
“How much more of an investment can you provide?” The stern man asked.
Jenny glared at me for opening my big mouth and I sighed.
“Triple it.” I said in a defeated tone.
“Fuuuuck.” Jenny said and rubbed her temples. “You are a BIG... STUPID... IDIOT!”
“I'm sorry.” I said and slumped my shoulders.
Everyone in the room felt bad about it, since I had just given up over nine point three million dollars, even the stern man and Mr. Graham looked dejected.
“I'll have these packed up and sent over with you.” The stern man said and waved to the guards. “You are to make sure he deposits the gold into the bank properly.”
“Yes, sir.” Both guards said, then Jenny and I watched as a thousand gold coins were counted and bagged up. I didn't offer to store them, either. I knew that they wouldn't like 'their' gold disappearing again. The guards took the gold and escorted Jenny and myself out of the building and to the federal bank that was only a couple of streets over. I was watched carefully and the coins were counted out as I deposited two thousand of them into a large metal container. They were counted, as were the thousand the guards had brought, then the container was sealed up and stored in the vault.
A surprisingly pretty blonde woman in a business suit led us from the vault and across the bank to her office. “I believe you would like to open an account in our illustrious bank.” She said to Jenny and completely ignored me.
“I believe that you are quite correct.” Jenny said, her eyes gleaming and her voice full of satisfaction.
I sat there and watched as Jenny was the one that received a five hundred thousand dollar, non-repayable loan, that was guaranteed by the federal government... as long as it was used to benefit the country.
“Don't worry. The money is definitely going to benefit the country.” Jenny said with a wicked grin.
Ummm, I think you have your currency worth backwards. Precious metals values don't fluctuate all that much and have been on an upwards trend for a long time.
The USD is backed by how much oil is worth at the moment, look up the petrol dollar.
Now saying all that, he might have caused a local crash if he tried to dump it all at once, but if he doled it out over a period of time giving the market time to adjust he would be fine.
Welcome to Economics 101
The US dollar based on petrodollars can't be true, since about half of the world's oil comes from the middle east/Arabian states (quoted from petrodollar definition, it is the opposite):
The petrodollar is any U.S. dollar paid to oil-exporting countries in exchange for oil. Since the dollar is a global currency, all international transactions are priced in dollars. As a result, oil-exporting nations must receive dollars.
@Bokuboy
Indian housewives own 11% of the world's gold, more than the *combined* holding of the IMF and the USA, Switzerland, and Germany.
Your interpretation of the significance of the petrodollar is more correct, but I would point out that meaning is still there: the dollar fluctuates (and all other currencies do so in relation to the dollar depending on trade balances) against raw resources due to global liquidity, almost like any other asset, due to demand. The big difference is that the supply of the dollar only really increases due to lending ("printing" is a marginal amount, most of what we call "printing" is the US federal govt. slowly borrowing slightly more money every year with no intent to at some point have all debt neutralized). The supply of resources increases due to prospecting or release of stockpiles.
At this point, gold is no longer important to the supply of currency, not even the US govt's gold reserve. As the story has required, only introducing something like high-quality diamonds en mass would cause a (albeit small) market crash and not risk assassinations the way that nuclear weapons related materials would.
If you wanted to continue with this plot mechanism, I would include trace amounts of a rare element/isotope in the gold coins, like Californium-251, which possibly has a ballpark value of $10M per gram. This would very much require the government's intervention.
Otherwise, any random large US city can experience much larger fluxes in cash due to random federal subsidies than the amount of gold any single enormous bank could physically store. $1B in gold is more than 2 tons of gold. $1B in gold is not liquid or fungible. A medium sized city or small state government would somewhat highly value this, but even the smallest state yearly budget (Delaware) is $4.5B.
This gold only has value in it being nearly untraceable for very small bribes (a few coins), Rolex watches would be more effective bribes though.
Jesus your understanding of economics and legal systems are screwy. you really need to focus on the fun and not on this stuff. Here's a good example: you don't have to be a citizen of the United States to have your rights. It wouldn't matter if he's a "dead person" he'd still have all his rights.
I meant an American citizen's inalienable rights. Human rights are something else.
You see, he hasn't lived in the US for ten years, so he technically should have lost his citizenship (it shouldn't matter that he 'died', since he wasn't a resident for that period of time). As a visitor, he would have to prove his value to the country in order to stay, get a work visa, etc. etc., the whole kit and caboodle, or be deported.
He definitely proved his 'worth'.
Oh, and this is a story. Site rules specifically state that I can't make things 'too realistic' that people will try it in real life.
Anything found/buried on your own property (at the time of purchase) is yours. (https://time.com/10118/california-gold-coins-finders-keepers-john-mary/) Various other methods of finders-keepers also apply to ownership of found gold.
You legally can mint your own gold coins with pretty much whatever you want on them, there are many companies that offer this service.
Bullion coins (like the US 1 troy ounce gold coin) have a face value (that coin would be $50). (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5112)
The is only illegal to melt US minted coins if it meant for fraudulent activity (misrepresenting the value of a coin) or if the coins were obtained and melted for the purpose of profiting from the difference in the value of the raw materials (which doesn't apply to bullion coins, as they are bought for the value of their raw materials). (https://makeitfrommetal.com/is-it-illegal-to-melt-destroy-us-pennies-and-other-coins/)
The MC doesn't own the property where the coins would have been procured. LOL
The government, at any time, can confiscate any gold on their soil and request people to hand it over in times of crisis... the only exceptions are rare and odd coin collectors. Damon is partially within this odd exception. If they can't trace the coins to anyone or any country on Earth, then... it can be considered foreign gold. At that point, assuming his legal status can be reestablished, then other options are available to him. :)
@Bokuboy The only reason you need to explain the origin of any gold is for income Or ownership purposes. Gold can’t be claimed anymore the way the Fed did before the US Treasury took over the US Gold Reserve.
If someone else has a share in the right to the gold, that might complicate paying taxes.
If it’s an ownership issue: if it was discovered on federal land, the federal government might claim it if it can immediately assess that it belongs to one of the countries we have agreements with to return their artifacts (like Japan). The same would happen with state owned land.
States might also ask for found gold because their state constitution requires it (like the finding of Black Beard’s ship the Queen Ann’s Revenge find that’s in the coastal waters of North Carolina, and even then the coins were surrendered in a commercial agreement with the finder), but they must pay a fair price (although a precedent setting case related to this is being tried in the Supreme Court in the case I’ve just mentioned).
As for if it was found on municipal or personal property, it would be up to zoning laws, but generally, almost always, the finder is guaranteed the whole value of the find (even if they cannot retain ownership of the found objects).
Those who have a claim against someone’s claimed possessions must put a claim against them, even the government.
(Also, even if a person is alive while legally being declared dead, their estate, their property and finances, would own the find, and the state who is responsible for their estate is obligated to administer their estate fairly according to common law practices and the law and constitution of that state. This gold, at worse, would face a hefty estate (death) tax, be used to settle any outstanding debts, then be passed to any heirs or next of kin if no will has been created.)
Eminent Domain cannot be used willy nilly. Just like in 1933 when all the gold was taken, the government had to pay a (then) fair price for it.
The only exception you’ll see in modern times to these protections in the USA is civil asset forfeiture abuse by law enforcement. Most legal scholars agree that while laws allow this practice in suspected cases of specific crimes (drugs), the permanent holding of lawfully owned assets under this practice is unconstitutional and the practice’s day in court has been carefully dodged by careful settlements from watchful prosecutors who would hate to lose such a tool.
@ZedOud, the current price the government pays for gold that they can seize, is around 44 dollars. Yep, that is their 'fair market value' for taking you 1400 dollar gold. Oh, and it dropped like a hundred dollars this week. LOL
I'm not saying they will take it, just that they can. It's in the law. Trump can actually declare a fiscal emergency and have everyone hand over their gold for pennies on the dollar.... just like those scam 'we buy gold' businesses that were all the rage a couple years ago.
@Bokuboy I'm sorry but that's at best unfounded, this sounds like the kind of "fun fact" I can only find circulated on pro gold "blogs" designed to advertise the sale of gold to people like this one: (www.goldtelegraph.com/the-u.s-government-can-still-confiscate-gold)
The laws and executive actions that allowed for these actions were repealed in the 70's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 )
Even at that time, these coins, for their unique, collectable value would have been immune due to a section of the executive order that allowed
gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins
to be protected from the seizures.
The Constitution requires fair compensation for seized property. Sometimes, to be honest, the compensation is not rewarded promptly (and historically was occasionally refused to foreigners).
If you want an extreme example of fair compensation: the Invention Secrecy Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_Secrecy_Act) allows the US government to suppress any patent a defense agency thinks will threaten the interests of the government, that agency must then compensate the thwarted inventor (35 U.S. Code § 183). It's been estimated that these agencies have paid in the ballpark of $10B or more for this (much more than any possible collection of patents have ever been worth before commercialization). There is quite some number of not well known inventors that have net worths in the $100M to $1B range because of this practice.
@ZedOud Your way way off on this whole bit with gold and it really hurts the story. Which otherwise has been pretty good
@ZedOud Oh and the bit about selling the gold hurting economy. Made. Me do spit take. It's a sixteen trillion dollar economy a billion in gold would barely be a rounding error
@Kawaii1234567, I believe I said the local economy; but, having a bunch of gold suddenly appear would severely affect the price of gold... and that would affect the economy (shaking confidence, etc.).
But, it's just a story.
@Bokuboy No worries but there is no such thing as a local economy for gold. Worst case it would have been the same as a gold mine opening up in the town
@Kawaii1234567, I didn't say a local economy for gold, I said a huge influx of gold would change the local economy. What would happen if Damon walked around and dropped a hundred grand in tips after every meal? Or spent 500,000 at the hardware store or at a grocery store? (he did the last one, by the way). Chaos, I tell you. Utter chaos! LOL
(everyone would have greed in their eyes whenever he showed up)
A gold mine... would drop the price of gold because now it would be much more easily accessible and flood the market... and everyone around would possibly become rich and the prices of things (locally and in nearby areas) would skyrocket, assuming said gold was spread around and not hoarded.
@Bokuboy Spending money badly has nothing to do with gold. As to dropping the price of gold or flooding the market STAAHP IT you're killing me.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gold-lbma-volumes/gold-worth-37-billion-traded-in-london-each-day-new-data-shows-idUSKCN1NP0VH
37 billion in gold gets traded everyday on the London exchange alone toss in NU Chicago Tokyo Hong Kong Damon's gold is a drop in the ocean
@Kawaii1234567, actually, what gets traded is 'paper' and 'notes'. No actual gold is traded, just the ownership (the same with stocks). How would they ship the gold to new owners for storage? They don't. Imagine having to ship billions of dollars in gold around every day? It's impossible, since it could just be traded again the next day and shipped again. That would be a logistics nightmare. LOL
There is only so much gold out there and when more is produced by a country, it is added to the reserve (usually, since private citizens and private corporations can't do that and it's sold to organizations and governments that can). That's what my research tells me, anyways. I'm not an expert, though. Or really a novice.
It's just fun background info for a story.
@Bokuboy there's a reason I picked that article it gives you not just the volume traded but the physical amounts stored that was thousands of tonnes.
Anyway world gold production https://www.statista.com/statistics/238414/global-gold-production-since-2005/
2500 tonnes he isn't making a dent in anything
The mint gladly sells gold coins both collectible and bullion
The Franklin mint will sell them to you with all the other crap they sell
https://www.franklinmint.com/dept/gold-and-silver?cp=67914_83406_83426
Here's a whole article on how to buy gold as an investment
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/072316/how-do-you-purchase-physical-gold-bars.asp
And if you want you can make coins yourself or get people like these to do it for you https://www.the-coin-factory.com
Then there's that whole comedy bit about having to put it into the reserve . No, nope, nyet non,, nein. Just too funny. Maybe if you are mining on federal land but probably not even then