The articles describe the gold in the form of pucks, about 6-7 ounces. Does anyone have a link to a photo of one of these?
Assuming troy ounces, a 6.5 oz lump is only 10.49 cubic centimeters.
Pretty small puck.
Eventually, they discovered that he wasn’t just smuggling gold nuggets.
He was smuggling butts.
Was his name Tywin Lannister?
I sure as hell HOPE he laundered it.
In the late 30s my father worked across the street from the Philadelphia mint and got to know a couple of the employees. One of them told dad the story of a guy who would throw silver coins (dimes and quarters) out of a window onto a grassy lot below and then come back at night with a flashlight and find them. They eventually caught him by staking out the grassy lot. Not in the same class as this butt-smuggler though.
Why is the mint dealing with gold. Canada does not have any gold coins. One exception is near the mint entrance where there is a million dollar gold coin well chained down. It was pretty big, wagon wheel size and enormously heavy (about 40 lb, IIRC).
Is there an underground route to smuggle Canadian butts into the US?
Yes we have a gold coin.
This reminds me of a story I was told by about an employee of a silver plating company- they had metal detectors to prevent theft. The guy simply determined the lower detection limit of the machine, and wore no metal in his clothing. Smuggled out a few BB sized beads of silver every time he left the building. Over time, he accumulated quite a pile. It was a much simpler (and less lucrative) scheme, but easier on all involved.
He got caught when his dealer was arrested and turned him in for a reduced sentence.
I’ll bet that when they came to arrest him he shit a brick!
The Royal Canadian Mint makes a great deal of money by striking souvenir coins. They have struck a coin for basically everything. You want a Superman commemorative coin? That’s a thing. Blue Jays? Check out this month’s catalogue. Coins about Star Trek? Get out your credit card, they’ll sell you a coin with a picture of Captain Kirk holding a tribble. (I am not making that up.) Olympics?" Disney princesses? Chinese New Year? Basketball? A polar bear? Why not? They have all of those and more.
And yes, many are minted in gold. In fact, their gold coins are known for their purity. Wanna give someone a cool gift? They actually sell a one-kilogram (2.2 pound) coin. It’s four inches across. Yours for just $69,000.
Probably not many of those butt smuggled out .
CNN wanted to know if that guard got a raise.
More likely they just raised an eyebrow when they walked in on him and he blurted out, “I was just testing to see if it could work!”
Oh, whats next? The Franklin Mint Commemorative Suppository…? Try to explain That being on a stand on your desk at the office.
“… and it’ll fit Fifty gold sovereigns.”
“You’re joking…!”
“I never joke about my work, 007…”
Of course they were pucks. “This is Canada, Starker!”
Hey, there’s a defense for the original perpetrator:
"I was working late, and, uh, I had just bought this new pair of pants–very nice pants–and I was afraid some of the solvents and lubricants we use for the mint machinery could ruin these very nice new pants I had just bought if I happened to spill any of that stuff on my new pants. So, as a precautionary measure, I took my new pants off. And then it just so happened that I accidentally slipped and fell.
“Million to one shot, doc! Million to one!”