I can't imagine what must have been going through the mind of this guy when he started buying gold. I'd love to know how much he invested each year and how long he'd been doing it.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-20/a-gold-hoarders-legacy#r=hp-ls
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-20/a-gold-hoarders-legacy#r=hp-ls
Walter Samaszko Jr. was not a guy who wanted company. He covered the windows of his house in Carson City, Nev., with cardboard so the neighbors couldn’t see inside. He made the postman stick the mail through the slot in his garage rather than coming to the front door. He was so good at keeping people away that when he died of heart failure at age 69 in June, nobody noticed until his house began to smell. Someone called the sheriff’s department. A hazmat team removed Samaszko along with part of the floor he was stuck to.
That’s when everybody found out why he hadn’t been more sociable: The dour, white-haired recluse had been hoarding $7 million worth of gold coins, most of them hidden in the crawl space beneath the house. Some were in an old washing machine. There were British sovereigns dating back to the 1840s, Austrian ducats, and South African Kruggerands. But mostly Samaszko had collected rolls and rolls of $20 American gold pieces, the kind with double eagles on them. He also had $12,000 in cash, a stock account worth $165,000—and $200 in the bank.
"God bless us, every one"...It took (a realtor) and three attorneys two days to count all the coins. With the help of a numismatic expert, they determined that Samaszko’s clutch was worth $7 million. The gold is being stored in a vault in Reno until a local probate court judge decides its fate.
Samaszko may have been prepared for a societal collapse, but not for his own end. He had no will. Nor did he have any children.