Mormon Gold Coins

The gold the mormons used to mint their coins came from an old Ute indian mine that the spanish had taken over many years ago.  The Spanish melted silver and gold together with the idea of hauling it out back to Mexico then Spain.  Their main trouble was the Ute indians.  They would wait until the Spanish had loaded up their burros at the end of the season with all the gold they could carry and then attack, kill the spanish and dump the gold back into the mine and cover it up.  The Utes and the Apache of AZ were the only two tribes who didn't make good slaves for the Spanish.   Later on Chief Walker gave Brigham Young permission to send one man to collect the money rock(gold bullion)and take it back to Salt Lake.  The trip would take 2 weeks, and on the first trip 63 lbs. of almost pure gold was brought back.  The men at the mint just had to pound it out flat and start stamping.  The last I saw on the value of these coins was between $250,000 to $350,000 each.  Most of these coins were sent back east to pay for freight.  The military did in fact refuse to accept mormon money because of the alloy that was already in the gold dropping the value.  The gold was also used for gold plating on the angel on top of the temple in salt lake.  Thomas Rhoades then his son Caleb were the ones who brought gold back to salt lake.  Caleb found 7 other spanish mines and tried for years to have the department of the interior move the indian reservation line moved back a few miles so he could opening develop his mines.  I'm sure he was frustrated by the lack of cooperation of the government when he made a fatal error.  He told the government he would personally pay off the national debt if they would hurry and change the boundaries.  The debt at the time was around 1 Billion dollars.  Gold @ $20 oz.
Caleb died around 1905 and three months later the Gov changed the boundary lines. 

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63 pounds of almost pure Gold , would be today worth about ? 
Thank-you Bhunter for posting that bit of Utah history .

HH..........Eugene

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mormon gold coins link

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**http%3a//images.search.yahoo.com/images/view%3fback=http%253A%252F%252Fimages.search.yahoo.com%252Fsearch%252Fimages%253Fp%253Dmormon%252Bgold%252Bcoins%252B20%25252C%252B50%2526ei%253Dutf-8%2526y%253DSearch%2526fr%253Dfp-yie8-s%26w=300%26h=158%26imgurl=www.coinquest.com%252Fcgi-data%252Fcq_ro%252Fresponse_300%252Fus_quarter_eagle_1837.jpg%26rurl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.coinquest.com%252Fcgi-bin%252Fcq%252Fcoins%253Fmain_ct_id%253D88%26size=52KB%26name=US%2bQuarter%2bEagle...%26p=mormon%2bgold%2bcoins%2b20%252C%2b50%26oid=5067f541372420499ebc32f8b71ccb30%26fr2=%26no=12%26tt=28%26sigr=11n5g4gac%26sigi=127ng1gb6%26sigb=1383qv6lg

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  Did you know that the Mormon immigrants who settled in the Great Salt Lake area of frontier Utah

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Leibstandarte??? What a name??? I'm German-Austrian and just can?t get used to saying or spelling anything from the old homeland (except my name, which is under dispute).

The stolen Mormon mint money legend has certainly gone the rounds over the years. I?ve done plenty of research and must agree with our friend Leibstandarte.  However, I have also researched the late George Thompson.  I first met him out in Skull Valley (Utah) in the mid 80?s and have also worked with several of his colleagues.  Everything he wrote in his books has some basis in fact, including the legend of the missing Mormon Mint money.  Leibstandarte?s assertion that Hosea Stout could not have led the posse that went after the Baldwins is corroborated in Stout?s journals, although the loot did not total half the wealth of the Mormon Community.  It was however, a significant amount, enough possibly to warrant a cover up that may even have included Stout?s omitting the robbery in his journals.  And if Brigham Young said ?don?t talk about it? there probably would be little history concerning the matter today.  There are no newspaper entries in 49?, 50? or for the next ten years, but there are numerous pioneer records and journals which remain to this day. 

My Great Grandfather was a scribe for Brigham Young.  His journals would indicate the robbery did take place.  What is absent from most viable sources of information is a concise history after the robbery.

Zul32 estimates the search area to be a couple hundred square miles.  Given the scarcity of information, a more likely search area would include over 8000 square miles of extremely harsh, rugged desert mountains and valleys.  The missing coins would easily have fit into one saddle bag so the treasure is small, very small and probably buried, not strewn over the desert sands as has been suggested. 

So you have an extremely small needle in an unbelievably huge field of hundreds of haystacks.  A guy in a Jeep with a metal detector won?t even scratch the surface.  To be successful, one will have to do enough research to narrow down the path the Baldwins took, find the location where their bodies were (supposedly) found, and use something a lot more precise than a typical metal detector to find anything.  At least that?s what George Thompson thought when he teamed up with Mel Fisher and flew the Sevier Desert in a helicopter equipped with 3 million dollars of high tech infrared and Ground Penetrating Radar gear 8 or 9 years ago.  They (reportedly) found nothing.

Now both men are dead.  One report asserts Thompson and Fisher actually found the coins!  But Fisher, well acquainted with the intricacies and legalities of maintaining ownership of such a treasure, made sure no public notice was ever given of the find.  On the other hand, this particular treasure would be worth much more than Zul32 estimates, and even Fisher, would have a very difficult time marketing the coins without word getting out.  In 1984, one mint condition Mormon Gold coin was uncovered with other hidden relics inside the wall of a pioneer era building under renovation in Salt Lake City.  The worker who made the discovery kept the coin and secretly found a buyer about two weeks later.  He got $850,000.00 from a private eastern collector for the single coin.  This is not fable or folklore.  I know about it not through research or treasure hunting?I knew the worker who found the coin.  When I asked him how he could afford to buy a huge new home, boat and truck on the same day, he told me not only could he afford them, they were paid in full!  Then he told me about the coin. 

Speculate all you want!  If somehow, the loot could be found, and if somehow, we could get as much for each of the 250 stolen coins as my friend did, and then maybe double the value due to the historical significance of the find???well, why do you think people are crazy enough to waste all their time looking for this stuff in the first place?  My calculator just broke! 

See you in the Sevier Desert, I?ll bring the doughnuts, you bring the water, and lots of it.  No beer, I?m a Mormon!  Shoot, when we find it we?ll have to tell my bishop, and he?ll make us give it back to the church.  We?ll have to cut him in.  Now how do you figure tithing on 400 mill???..mind boggling.  If we find this I?ll have enough to get my truck fixed with enough left over for new tires too! 


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