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Thread: Teacher sole heir of $7.4M gold coin fortune

  1. #1

    Teacher sole heir of $7.4M gold coin fortune

    http://enews.earthlink.net/article/u...e-998bcc37a97b

    By SCOTT SONNER
    From Associated Press
    December 18, 2012 5:52 PM EST
    CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Walter Samaszko Jr. was a loner whose death went largely unnoticed. That all changed when a crew sent to clean out his house found a fortune stashed away in the garage of his modest ranch-style home.

    There were ammunition boxes stuffed with thousands of gold coins, from Austria, Mexico and the United States. There was enough gold to fill up two wheelbarrows — more than $7.4 million worth.

    "There was every kind of coin you could think of," said Alan Glover, the Carson City clerk and the public administrator of the estate who borrowed a neighbor's wheelbarrow to haul the treasure out.


    City officials searched through records to find an heir: a substitute teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area who a judge declared Tuesday was Samaszko's lone surviving first cousin.

    The decision means Arlene Magdanz of San Rafael, Calif., is a millionaire. She didn't attend the hearing and, so far, has not said anything publicly about her newfound fortune.

    Officials were able to track her down using a funeral bulletin at Samaszko's home that led to his father's service in Chicago in the early 1960s, and then newspaper clippings that listed survivors.

    When a lawyer told her that her 69-year-old cousin's estate was valued in the millions, officials said, she was surprised, just like everyone else, including his neighbors on their quiet street.

    No one seemed to know him at all, even though he had lived in the house since the 1960s. His mother lived with him until her death in 1992. When he died, the house was generally well kept.

    "I don't think I saw him in the year I was out here," said Curtis Hastings, who dropped mail into a slot in Samaszko's garage. A woman who lived just two doors down said she didn't know him.

    Samaszko's body was found in June after neighbors called authorities, though it was not clear what prompted them to do so. He had been dead of heart problems for at least a month, according to the coroner.

    Officials don't know what Samaszko did for a living. They also don't know how he earned the money that was used to buy the gold.

    There were meticulous records of the purchases, since at least 1964, leading Glover to suspect that the gold coins may have been mainly bought over the years by Samaszko's mother.

    His bank account stood at $1,200. He had a money market and mutual fund with a combined value of more than $165,000 when it was closed. His three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot house was sold for $112,000.

    "He was not a coin collector," Glover said. "He was a gold investor."

    While the coins themselves were "nothing spectacular," Glover said, there were a lot of them — thousands, some wrapped up neatly in foil or plastic cases, others loose in bags.

    There were more than 2,900 Austrian coins, many from 1915; 4,500 from Mexico; 500 from Britain; 300 U.S. gold pieces, some dating to 1880; and more than 100 U.S. gold pieces as old as the 1890s. They were stored mostly in 2-foot-by-2-foot-by-2.5-foot ammo boxes stacked on top of each other.


    The variety of coins impressed Howard Herz, the appraiser of the fortune for the estate who has seen a lot as curator of gambling collections at Harvey's Resort at Lake Tahoe from 1960-93.

    "It was an extraordinarily well calculated investment in gold," Herz said.

    Besides his house, Samaszko's other belongings have fetched very little: A bike sold for $2, a saw for $10.70 and a wrench for $15. (A 1968 Ford Mustang California Special will soon be auctioned, appraised at $17,000).

    The real money will come when the gold is sold. A lucrative investment in the last few years as the economy remained stuck in a slump, gold is worth about $1,700 an ounce, up from about $400 a decade ago.

    Meanwhile, Magdanz has left her apartment to stay in a secret location due to an avalanche of requests from the news media for interviews, Glover said.

    "She was so frazzled and so harassed," he said.



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  3. #2
    Didn't a similar story happen a few years back?
    __________________________________________________ ________________
    "A politician will do almost anything to keep their job, even become a patriot" - Hearst

  4. #3
    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


    Quiz: Test Your "Income" Tax IQ!

    Short Income Tax Video

    The Income Tax Is An Excise, And Excise Taxes Are Privilege Taxes

    The Federalist Papers, No. 15:

    Except as to the rule of appointment, the United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.

  5. #4
    Someone tell that stupid woman not to sell it.
    "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
    —Charles Mackay

    "god i fucking wanna rip his balls off and offer them to the gods"
    -Anonymous

  6. #5
    Has anyone called the IRS to make sure she's paying her fair share of estate tax?

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Confederate View Post
    Has anyone called the IRS to make sure she's paying her fair share of estate tax?
    Yes.
    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


    Quiz: Test Your "Income" Tax IQ!

    Short Income Tax Video

    The Income Tax Is An Excise, And Excise Taxes Are Privilege Taxes

    The Federalist Papers, No. 15:

    Except as to the rule of appointment, the United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Confederate View Post
    Has anyone called the IRS to make sure she's paying her fair share of estate tax?
    see something. report something.
    rewritten history with armies of their crooks - invented memories, did burn all the books... Mark Knopfler

  9. #8
    Next up: Substitute teacher trades gold for fiat paper money in order to help pay down the nation's debt.



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Confederate View Post
    Has anyone called the IRS to make sure she's paying her fair share of estate tax?
    Hmmm, 10% bounty from IRS for the tip...

  12. #10
    LibForestPaul
    Member

    What was his job? Who was his employer or what business did he own?

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by LibForestPaul View Post
    What was his job? Who was his employer or what business did he own?
    Perhaps The Clash knows? Take it away Joe....

  14. #12
    LibForestPaul
    Member

    That was interesting video. Clash aint bad.

  15. #13
    LibForestPaul
    Member

    But I really want to know what job allows one to save this much. I don't mind a career change.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by LibForestPaul View Post
    But I really want to know what job allows one to save this much. I don't mind a career change.
    Buying it when it was worth $400/oz or less makes a huge difference.
    ================
    Open Borders: A Libertarian Reappraisal or why only dumbasses and cultural marxists are for it.

    Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America

    The Property Basis of Rights



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