Cross ‘Piano’ Off Your List of Best Places to Store Gold

schiffgold.com / BY SCHIFFGOLD / APRIL 21, 2017

File this story under the category of “worst places to store your gold.” Last year, a piano tuner in Shropshire, England, found 13 pounds of gold stashed inside a piano. This week, officials gave up trying to find the original owner.

Bishops Castle Community College sent the piano over to Martin Backhouse for maintenance and tuning last year. When he opened it up, he spotted some odd pouches stacked neatly under the keyboard. When he slit open the stitching on one of the pouches, he found gold coins. All told, there were 913 gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns minted in the 19th and early 20th centuries stuffed inside the piano.

Blackhouse’s recollection of the moment he found the gold seems rather understated. He told the AP he saw the coins and thought, “Ooh, it looks like there’s rather a lot of gold in this.”

The hoard, which weighs 6 kilograms (13 pounds), has not been formally valued. But Peter Reavill of the British Museum has said the trove is worth a “potentially life-changing” amount.

Revenue from items declared “treasure” is generally split between the owner — in this case, the Bishops Castle Community College — and the finder.

The piano was owned for 33 years by Graham and Meg Hemmings, who donated it last year to the school near their home. But Meg Hemmings said she’s not bitter at missing out on treasure that was right under her nose.

READ MORE

The post Cross ‘Piano’ Off Your List of Best Places to Store Gold appeared first on Silver For The People.