Scavenger hunt for coins worth thousands organized to teach about San Francisco history
As couples posed for pictures and photographers captured memories in front of San Francisco's iconic Palace of Fine Arts, treasure hunters frantically searched for rare and valuable coins in a scavenger hunt.
A dozen or so people were looking at every possible hiding spot under the dome.
"Found a pill," laughed Brii Duke as she searched around the pillars.
Game organizer Seth Chandler of Witter Coin and his team had minutes ago posted a clue for one of the coins on the company's Instagram page. It was a picture of the dome at the Palace of Fine Arts.
Duke and her boyfriend Indy Marklund happened to be visiting from Chico. They had no clue about the treasure hunt until they saw a father and son team searching.
"He was looking for something. We're like 'What are you looking for?' Because we thought he'd lost something. He was like, 'We're looking for a gold coin.' And we just started looking," said Duke.
Chandler came up with the scavenger hunt during this National Coin Week. The prizes are five gold coins, five silver coins, and one copper coin. Chandler said the copper penny and a gold coin are worth $2,500 each.
"I've got together 11 coins. The total value is $10,000. They range from $250 to $2,500. And we've hidden them in 11 different neighborhoods all throughout San Francisco," said Chandler.
He said it's part fun and part history lesson about the importance of San Francisco in producing coins.
"All the coins are made right here in San Francisco. People don't realize that San Francisco — We're the king of mints. We had three different mints. The first one was from 1854, second one was 1870, and the current one out in the Castro district has been making coins since 1938," said Chandler.
Chandler and his team put up 11 pictures as clues on their Instagram page exactly at noon. The game was open to the public and free to play.
At 12:21 pm, a scream of excitement under the dome at the Palace of Fine Arts. Duke, the college student who came to San Francisco for a Thursday night concert, found it. They were supposed to go back to Chico after right the concert. Instead, they got a hotel and now a piece of treasure.
"I was convinced it was behind one of these pillars. I looked at all of the pillars. And I came over here, and I climbed over here, and (it) was right there (behind the pillar). I almost thought it was trash. I thought it was trash for a second. And it wasn't trash," said Duke.
Duke and Marklund went to Witter Coin to thank them and received a history lesson on their treasure. Joe Pielago, the vice president of Witter Coin, explained it's a gold coin made in San Francisco in 1910 with close to half an ounce of gold.
The company estimated the coin's value at $1,100.
Brii said that price tag more than covered their trip.
"I'm honestly at a loss for words, I've been (speechless) since I found it. This is $1,000 that I wasn't expecting to get today," said Brii.
Witter Coin offered Brii $1,100 on the spot to buy back the coin. Brii declined and said she'll keep it at least for a while.
Witter Coin representatives said one coin has not been found as of Friday evening. They plan to release more clues on their company Instagram page on Saturday for that remaining coin.