# If I found a brick of solid gold with no indication of ownership on the side of the street **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541 "2019-12-29T12:15:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/41 "2019-12-31T14:06:08Z")
It certainly would be a top contender in the Most Money You’ve Lost in the Stupidest Way [thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=886989). ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/42 "2019-12-31T14:19:11Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Constantly look over your shoulder. Whoever lost the gold probably wants it back. Badly. This. I’ve read enough stories of someone finding a bunch of cash on the side of the road, only to find out it was the life savings/critical amount of cash to someone that I’d feel guilty about keeping it. OTOH, I wouldn’t turn it over to the police, as they’d likely keep it themselves under that asset forfeiture bullshit. I’d put ads up in the local paper and Craigslist, keeping it a bit vague, and see if it got claimed. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/43 "2019-12-31T14:40:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > In the real world, of course, that is bullshit. If a bag of money falls off an armored car, you can’t just keep it because you found it on the street corner. Do you have a cutesy rhyme to support your position? I rest my case. ETA: weeper. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/44 "2019-12-31T14:47:26Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > This. I’ve read enough stories of someone finding a bunch of cash on the side of the road, only to find out it was the life savings/critical amount of cash to someone that I’d feel guilty about keeping it. No Country For Old Men ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/45 "2019-12-31T14:58:35Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > I would imagine any “load” of gold buillon bricks would be shrink wrapped to the pallet, after having been counted and verified by a number of people. > > Vaults which handle only money–coin and currency–do this. Coins are counted and placed in boxes which are sealed, and stacked on pallets. At a certain amount, the boxes are shrink-wrapped to the pallet. Currency is handled the same way. The people who count the money wear jumpsuits with NO pockets. And there are cameras everywhere. > > If the shrink wrap is disturbed, everything stops. > > Someone could not take out, say, a box of quarters to use as a doorstop. > ~VOW Cite? I’m actually curious, I’ve never seen gold moved OUT of the vault at the NY Federal Reserve. But I’ve been inside the vault 3 times and the gold isn’t wrapped in any way while in storage, it’s just stacked in secondary cages with multiple locks inside the main vault. And there is no shrink wrap machinery inside the vault. They do store shrink wrapped bundles of cash inside the vault, though. I’m not sure your supposition on how the gold is moved takes into account the weight, you probably can’t load a up pallet of gold like it was pallet of bricks. And the guys that work at a vault may be exaggerating or making up the story about the lost brick, but if they do they tell it consistently. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/46 "2019-12-31T15:12:12Z")
Gold fever makes funny things happen. A dozen years ago or so the Providence RI police confiscated a box full of gold coins from a pawn shop because they were suspected to be stolen. Some time later the coins were proven to be legitimately owned by the pawn shop. When they picked up the box of coins at the police station half for them were missing. This was obviously many thousands of dollars in missing coins. The police went through the list of usual excuses, they returned all the coins they had confiscated, there was no record of any more coins, the pawn shop was mistaken, they couldn’t have been misplaced…, and of course the pawn shop went to court to recover their property. A few weeks later all the coins were suddenly found, they say. No doubt some had been pilfered from the property room and the chief let it be known they had better have been misplaced and better be found. I suspect not every last one was found either but the pawn shop and the police reached some kind of deal, I’m sure they interacted in a lot of ways besides this case. So if I found that gold brick I’d have to turn it over to the police, but my mind would be spinning with ideas for somehow keeping that gold. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/47 "2019-12-31T15:41:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > If a poor person lost it, it should be given back. If a rich person lost it, I’d say just keep it. IIRC bricks of gold mislaid by poor persons tend to be smallish bricks. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So yes, if you show up with a ring that is higher purity than 24k, someone that tested it could know that something was up. What’s the difference between the 99.9 test and the 99.99 test? Does 99.99 gold have significantly different texture or flexibility than 99.9 gold? Anyway, my guess is that the 99.9 tester would never notice that the item is 99.99 > [@Chronos](#): > > … in some jurisdictions, the gold itself must be turned over to the government, but the finder (_not_ the property owner) is entitled to compensation in the amount of the gold’s value, so long as the finder had a legitimate reason to be on the land when it was found. IIRC, there was a case in England where the finder was hired to work some farmland, and in the course of plowing discovered a Roman treasure trove. The landowner tried to claim ownership, but in the end the plowman got the money. (Ninja’ed by **Pazu**.) This sounded familiar, but in the story I recalled (posted 6 weeks ago at SDMB) the ploughman got cheated. (The 14-day deadline to report the treasure had expired.) > [@14 years ago, a 9-year-old found a 700-year-old coin...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/14-years-ago-a-9-year-old-found-a-700-year-old-coin/843331/21): > > My knowledge of the regulations continued with _The Detectorists_ but began with [_The Mildenhall Treasure_ by Roald Dahl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mildenhall_Treasure). ([Here](https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.pc.gsu.edu/dist/6/45/files/2017/09/Dahl-Mildenhall-to-post-2ns74cf.pdf) is a PDF of the full article.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/48 "2019-12-31T16:53:03Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > What’s the difference between the 99.9 test and the 99.99 test? Does 99.99 gold have significantly different texture or flexibility than 99.9 gold? Anyway, my guess is that the 99.9 tester would never notice that the item is 99.99 Possibly noting casual, but if someone was known to be missing a brick of gold and something reasonably suspicious showed up, a mass spectrometer (or similar serious lab equipment) could probably tell. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/49 "2019-12-31T20:08:02Z")
If you’re ever in Ottawa, the Royal Canadian Mint is worth a visit. In the show room, they have a gold brick on display. You’re allowed to pick it up to see its heft. (You can’t walk off with it, given the chain and the friendly security guard whose job is to watch the brick.) I was hoping they would have one of the million dollar gold coins on display, but not so, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/50 "2019-12-31T21:24:00Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > If you’re ever in Ottawa, the Royal Canadian Mint is worth a visit. In the show room, they have a gold brick on display. You’re allowed to pick it up to see its heft. (You can’t walk off with it, given the chain and the friendly security guard whose job is to watch the brick.) > > I was hoping they would have one of the million dollar gold coins on display, but not so, apparently. Wasn’t that the mint where an employee was smuggling coins out in his butt? ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/51 "2019-12-31T21:51:40Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Pawn shops in many, if not all locals require you to show ID to take anything from you. Otherwise, they become a very easy fence for any stolen goods. Criminals are far less likely to associate their personal info to turning your burglarized goods into cash. Around here, you are required to show ID at pawn shops, which are still a location for fencing stolen goods anyway. (Or were, back when I knew drug addicts). There is no good system for locating stolen goods, there is no good system for identifying most stolen goods, and the addicts used to just take their chances. As far as I can see, the only thing limiting it now is that stuff from China (including cheap jewellery and tools ) is so cheap that the price point for stolen goods has collapsed. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/52 "2019-12-31T22:08:55Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Wasn’t that the mint where an employee was smuggling coins out in his butt? Yes, but it wasn’t coins - pucks about the diameter of a golf ball, made for assay purposes. “Mint employée guilty of smuggling $190K in rectum” > **[Ottawa mint employee smuggled $190K of gold in his rectum, judge rules | CBC...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-mint-gold-stolen-guilty-1.3843169)** > > A former Royal Canadian Mint employee has been found guilty of smuggling $190,000 worth of gold from the building on Sussex Drive — apparently in his rectum — an Ottawa judge ruled Wednesday morning. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/53 "2019-12-31T22:12:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Possibly noting casual, but if someone was known to be missing a brick of gold and something reasonably suspicious showed up, a mass spectrometer (or similar serious lab equipment) could probably tell. Stated differently, the police — suspicious for some external reason — would have ordered the 99.99 test instead of the 99.9 test, which is where my post was driving. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/54 "2019-12-31T22:16:54Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Possibly noting casual, but if someone was known to be missing a brick of gold and something reasonably suspicious showed up, a mass spectrometer (or similar serious lab equipment) could probably tell. But what are you measuring _against_? Did the original owner do a test before it was lost? Without a comparison (and done on the same or similar equipment in the same or similar way), all you have are numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/55 "2019-12-31T23:23:21Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But what are you measuring _against_? Did the original owner do a test before it was lost? Without a comparison (and done on the same or similar equipment in the same or similar way), all you have are numbers. A gold bar is refined to a specific fineness. 24 karat gold jewelry is refined to a lower fineness. Therefore, if a piece of jewelry has the fineness of a gold bar instead of the fineness of jeweler’s gold, then you know that it was made from a gold bar not jeweler’s gold. You are measuring against the standards for refining. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/56 "2020-01-01T14:04:29Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > A gold bar is refined to a specific fineness. 24 karat gold jewelry is refined to a lower fineness. Therefore, if a piece of jewelry has the fineness of a gold bar instead of the fineness of jeweler’s gold, then you know that it was made from a gold bar not jeweler’s gold. You are measuring against the standards for refining. And this proves ownership how? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/57 "2020-01-01T17:24:24Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > And this proves ownership how? I’ll leave you to flog that straw man on your own–you are doing a fine job. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2020, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/58 "2020-01-01T22:48:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’ll leave you to flog that straw man on your own–you are doing a fine job. It’s your straw man. ---
**Author:** ![Sjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sjoe)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/59 "2020-01-02T01:35:31Z")
Time to study to become a Jeweler . . . ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541/60 "2020-01-02T12:28:26Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’ll leave you to flog that straw man on your own–you are doing a fine job. > [@ftg](#): > > It’s your straw man. Though a man be made of straw, that is no justification for another to own him, nor to strike him. (US Constitution) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-found-a-brick-of-solid-gold-with-no-indication-of-ownership-on-the-side-of-the-street/845541.md?page=4)