The original face value of the coins was about $27,000 at the turn of the century, according to experts, which is approximate value of the gold stolen in 1900. Furthermore, the coins were mostly in chronological order, suggesting they were unused.

The story was discovered in the Haithi Trust Digital Library by historian and coin collector Jack Trout, who also identified another suspicious piece of evidence linking the newly discovered gold to the 1900 heist: One of the coins in the stash was an 1866 Liberty $20 gold piece. “I don’t believe that coin ever left The Mint until the robbery,” he says.