Free Republic

Nice recovery in gold. It had lost about $100 over the last few weeks, to early October. Pretty much got it all back.

In December, when the authorities identified the suspect wanted in the theft of a bucket of gold flakes valued at $1.6 million, Detective Martin Pastor of the New York Police Department vowed he would find him. “I’m going to come and get you,” the detective said in an interview with WNBC. “He can run as far as he can, and we will find him.”The authorities said the suspect, Julio Nivelo, did in fact run after the theft in September, from New York to Florida — and then to Los Angeles. On Thursday, Mr. Nivelo was caught in his native Ecuador,...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Armed robbers stole $4 million in gold on Sunday from a truck traveling north along Interstate 95 from Florida to Massachusetts, authorities said Monday. The two security guards working for Transvalue Inc. of Miami reported pulling off to the side of the interstate about 6 p.m. Sunday after their vehicle began having mechanical problems in Wilson County, the sheriff’s office said. [snip] They were then approached by three armed men driving a white van who ordered the guards to lie on the ground, tied their hands behind their backs and then marched them into nearby woods....

U.S. Justice Department investigates price-setting process for gold, silver, platinum and palladium U.S. officials are investigating at least 10 major banks for possible rigging of precious-metals markets, even though European regulators dropped a similar probe after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, according to people close to the inquiries. Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s antitrust division are scrutinizing the price-setting process for gold, silver, platinum and palladium in London, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has opened a civil investigation, these people said. The agencies have made initial requests for information, including a subpoena from the CFTC to HSBC Holdings PLC...

Shortly before his death in 2007, Manhattan landlord and lawyer Edward Giaimo Jr. revealed to his two siblings a secret — he had hidden a stash of silver and gold worth millions. While being treated for cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital, Giaimo allegedly told his brother and sister that he had stowed away a large amount of precious metals and they would need a truck to move it. The lifelong bachelor added that the metals, believed to be silver bullion and South African gold coins known as Krugerrands, were safe, but they needed to be removed from their hiding spot...

<p>A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.</p> <p>Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them. Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.</p>

The Indian government on Friday began digging for treasure near an ancient temple after a tip off from a holy man who said he dreamed 1,000 tons of gold was buried there. Swami Shoban Sarkar said he was approached in a dream by a 19th century ruler called Rao Ram Bux Singh who told him about the $40 billion bonanza buried near an ancient temple. But despite having no money, land, or even a bank account, Sarkar did not keep the mystical vision to himself. Instead the civic-minded citizen informed the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in the hope the...

India’s temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy. The central bank, which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India’s current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country’s richest temples asking for details of their gold. It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms. “The gold stored in temples...

A MASSIVE gold nugget that could be worth upwards of half a million dollars has been unearthed in Ballarat. See your ad here The nugget, weighing slightly more than five kilograms (177 ounces), was discovered by a local prospector on Wednesday morning, who rushed it to the Ballarat Mining Exchange Gold Shop. The exact location and the identity of the lucky prospector remain secret, but gold shop owner Cordell Kent said the nugget was found within 30 kilometres of the Ballarat CBD. It was found about 60 centimetres below the surface, with the prospector using a state-of-the-art detector worth more...

A 3,300-year-old treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical. Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking veteran Social Democratic politician. Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet)...

For decades, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has warned that our fiat currency will collapse around us, leaving everyone in economic shambles. Gold, he says, is the surest path back to sound money. In a CNBC interview earlier this month(during which host Joe Kernen misidentified Paul as not being a gold investor), Paul extolled the virtues of gold as protection against the continuing ripples of the global financial crash. "I think what we're dealing with is the end of the dollar reserve standard," Paul said. "This is probably a bigger problem than the world has ever faced before." But, fittingly, Paul...

Finders fail to become keepers as £100,000 worth of American money is returned to the family of its original owner The glass jar contained 80 American coins dating from 1854. Photograph: Hackney CouncilA hoard of gold coins found in Hackney by a local resident in 2007 does not qualify as treasure and should be returned to the descendent of the man who originally buried them, ruled an inquest last week (Monday 18 April).In 2007, Hackney resident Terence Castle was digging a frog pond with three others in a back garden in Stamford Hill when they struck suddenly struck gold, discovering...

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- New Orleans police said a man who was shot by his brother was spared serious injury or death when the bullet bounced off his gold tooth. Police said Waltdell Davis, 20, used a .22-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver to shoot his brother, Walter Davis, 22, after an argument about Walter smoking his younger brother's marijuana, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.

The family of ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali has reportedly fled the country with 1.5 tons of gold worth more than 45 million euros. Citing information received form the French secret services, the French newspaper, Le Monde, disclosed on Monday that Leila Trabelsi, the wife of the ousted president, took the gold bars out of the country before the collapse of Ben Ali's regime. Ben Ali's 23-year rule ended on Friday after weeks of street protests all over the North African country. "According to information gathered in Tunis, Leila Trabelsi, the president's wife allegedly went to the...

By disclosing a plan to conjure $600 billion to support the sagging economy, the Federal Reserve affirmed the interesting fact that dollars can be conjured. In the digital age, you don’t even need a printing press. This was on Nov. 3. A general uproar ensued, with the dollar exchange rate weakening and the price of gold surging. And when, last Monday, the president of the World Bank suggested, almost diffidently, that there might be a place for gold in today’s international monetary arrangements, you could hear a pin drop. Let the economists gasp: The classical gold standard, the one that...

A valuable hoard of American gold coins has been unearthed in an east London garden — one of Britain's most curious treasure finds. Buried hoards are discovered every so often, but their Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Roman owners were themselves interred long ago. Whoever hid the 80 coins from the 19th and early 20th centuries may be alive. Why they chose the garden of a residential block in Hackney is a mystery. Archaeologists more used to deciphering which Roman emperor is depicted on a coin have been taken aback by the find — gold $20 “Double Eagle” pieces dating from 1854...

A bright yellow glimmer caught Charlie "Digger Chuck" Ward's eye as he panned. His eyes had fooled him in the past, so he reached in the pan to feel the weight of the clump. Ward handed it to his prospecting partner, Byron Janis, and asked "Is this what I think it is?" The 2-¼ inch by 1-1/2 inch by 1 inch rock was exactly what Ward thought it was: gold. It turned out to be the largest undisputed gold nugget found in the Black Hills in the past 120 years. (A larger nugget has been found, but its authenticity has...

NEW MARTINSVILLE, W.Va. -- An Ohio Valley man whose spray-painted mugshot was circulated worldwide has been arrested again on accusations of huffing.Wetzel County sheriff's deputies arrested Patrick Tribett -- again with gold spray paint on his face -- Wednesday night.

The coins, each weighing 400 milligrams, have markings in UrduAncient gold coins were unearthed at Kottamalam village near Kadambur block in Sathyamangalam taluk on Sunday.A villager stumbled upon an earthen pot containing the coins numbering 744 when he was cleaning his piece of land along with wife and two grand daughters near his house. It was said that the people in the village shared the treasure.On hearing the information, Village Administrative Officer alerted the Sathyamangalam Tahsildar. Along with a team of police personnel, the revenue officials rushed to the village and took possession of the coins, each weighed around 400...