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You`re only a day away from Friday. You`re watching CNN STUDENT NEWS. You`re ten minutes
away from getting up to speed on current events.
Time for "The Shoutout." The word "aurum" is Latin for what element on the Periodic
Table? If you think you know it, shout it out! Is it, silver, aluminum, tungsten or
gold? You`ve got three seconds, go.
With atomic symbol Au and atomic number 79, gold comes from the Latin term "Aurum." That`s
your answer, and that`s your shout out.
Yesterday, gold was trading on a stock market at over $1300 and ounce. It doesn`t tarnish
or corrode, it`s been used in Jewelry for thousands of years. It`s mentioned in the
Bible, the Torah, the Koran. And it`s been the one universally acceptable form of currency.
People have haunted Golden Mountains and seas. But recently, it just turned up in someone`s
back yard.
It may be the greatest buried treasure ever found in the United States. Coin after coin,
more than 14,000. Al of them pure gold, found by some lucky couple on their California property.
Estimated worse? $10 million dollars.
How do they find these coins?
They were out walking the dog on their property like they`ve done for years, and they spied
something metal and they went to investigate. They though it was full of paint.
The couple wants to remain anonymous. But that hasn`t stopped some people from trying
to figure out who they are and how the riches wound up on their property.
The latest theory is that it`s part of an earlier 20th Century heist at the San Francisco
Met. This newspaper article from 1901 makes reference to the sum of $30,000 in gold coin
stolen from the vault of the cashier. The face value of the buried treasure was nearly
the same amount.
The thief Walter M Dimmick was eventually busted where that gold was never found. Could
this be the long lost loot? And if it is, could it also spell bad news for those who
found it. Yes, according to legal experts.
In the case where you can clearly identify the owner and clearly identify the crime,
the finder`s right to the treasure certainly diminishes.
But don`t start feeling sorry for them. Apparently, in this case it really is finders` keepers.
The man says "It doesn`t have any information linking the coins to any thefts at any U.S
Mint Facility." Perhaps, the most likely scenario, it was just a guy hiding his money.
Back then, they didn`t always trust the banks, you know.
They lucky couple is trusting these men to be their coin dealers. Filthy and covered
with the 120 years of dirt, they brought them back to their original luster.
Do you think your odds are better of winning the lottery of finding gold buried in your
yard?
Winning the lottery, no doubt about it.
The treasure unearthed, but the secret behind it remains buried. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.