SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A treasure trove of rare gold coins discovered by a California couple out walking their dog has gone on sale, with one coin selling for $15,000 on Tuesday. 
 
 FILE - This Feb. 25, 2014 file photo shows some of the 1,427 Gold-Rush era U.S. gold coins displayed at Professional Coin Grading Service in Santa Ana, Calif. A treasure trove of rare gold coins discovered... (Associated Press) 
 
 The coins date from 1847 to 1894 and have been valued at $11 million. 
 
 Several coins were auctioned at the Old San Francisco Mint at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, and one of them — an 1874 $20 double eagle that is usually worth $4,250 — sold for $15,000. 
 
 Don Kagin, whose firm is handling the sale, says most of the remaining 1,400 coins had gone on sale on Amazon.com and Kagins.com after the auction. 
 
 The couple, whom Kagin declined to identify, found them last year buried under the shadow of a tree on their rural Northern California property. 
 
 Here are five things to know about the coins and their origin: 
 
 WHY ARE THEY SO VALUABLE? 
 
 Experts say paper money was illegal in California until the 1870s, so it's extremely rare to find any coins from before that period. Additionally, most of the coins are in mint condition, having been stashed away seemingly immediately after they were minted. They were valued by Don Kagin, a numismatist who is handling the sale and marketing of the coins. 
 
 WHO FOUND THEM? 
 
 Kagin says the couple — a middle-aged husband and wife — does not want to be identified in part to avoid a gold rush on their rural Northern California property by modern-day prospectors. They discovered the coins in eight cans buried in the shadow of an old tree on the property. They plan to keep a few of the coins themselves and use the money from the rest to pay off bills and donate to local charities. Money from Tuesday's auction will benefit the effort to turn the Old Mint into a museum. 
 
 WHERE DID THE COINS COME FROM? 
 
 Most of the coins were minted at the San Francisco Mint, according to Kagin. It's not clear, however, who put them in the ground or how they were obtained, though theories have abounded. Kagin says people have linked the coins to stagecoach bandit Black Bart, outlaw Jesse James and a theft at the San Francisco Mint, but none of the theories has panned out. 
 
 WHAT IS IN THE COLLECTION? 
 
 The treasure consists of four $5 gold pieces, fifty $10 gold pieces, and 1,373 $20 double eagles. Among the coins that will be on display Tuesday is the crown jewel of the collection — an 1866-S No Motto $20 gold piece valued at more than $1 million. 
 
 HOW DOES THIS DISCOVERY COMPARE TO OTHER COIN FINDS? 
 
 Kagin calls this coin find the largest such discovery in U.S. history. One of the largest previous finds of gold coins was uncovered by construction workers in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1985 and valued at $1 million. More than 400,000 silver dollars were found in the home of a Reno, Nevada, man who died in 1974 and were later sold intact for $7.3 million. Gold coins and ingots said to be worth as much as $130 million were recovered in the 1980s from the wreck of the SS Central America. But historians knew roughly where that gold was because the ship went down off the coast of North Carolina during a hurricane in 1857. ||||| A California couple who found a stash of buried gold coins valued at $10 million may not be so lucky after all. The coins may have been stolen from the U.S. Mint in 1900 and thus be the property of the government, according to a published report. 
 
 The San Francisco Chronicle's website reported that a search of the Haithi Trust Digital Library provided by Northern California fishing guide Jack Trout, who is also a historian and collector of rare coins, turned up the news of the theft. 
 
 WATCH: $10M Gold Coins May Be Linked to Heist 
 
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 The California couple, who have not been identified, spotted the edge of an old can on a path they had hiked many times before several months ago. Poking at the can was the first step in uncovering a buried treasure of rare coins estimated to be worth $10 million. 
 
 "It was like finding a hot potato," the couple told coin expert Don Kagin from Kagin's, Inc. The couple hired the president of Kagin's, Inc. and Holabird-Kagin Americana, a western Americana dealer and auctioneer, to represent them. 
 
 The coins are mostly uncirculated and in mint condition, and they add up in face value to $27,000. "Those two facts are a match of the gold heist in 1900 from the San Francisco Mint," the newspaper reported. 
 
 Jack Trout told the paper that an 1866 Liberty $20 gold piece without the words "In God We Trust" was part of the buried stash, and the coin may fetch over $1 million at auction because it's so rare. 
 
 "This was someone's private coin, created by the mint manager or someone with access to the inner workings of the Old Granite Lady (San Francisco Mint)," Trout told the newspaper. "It was likely created in revenge for the assassination of Lincoln the previous year (April 14, 1865). I don't believe that coin ever left The Mint until the robbery. For it to show up as part of the treasure find links it directly to that inside job at the turn of the century at the San Francisco Mint." 
 
 Mint spokesman Adam Stump issued this statement when contacted today by ABC News: "We do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility. Surviving agency records from the San Francisco Mint have been retired to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), under Record Group 104. Access to the records is under NARA's jurisdiction: http://www.archives.gov/." 
 
 Last week, when news of the stash first broke, coin dealer Kagin spoke about the rarity of such a find. 
 
 "Since 1981, people have been coming to us with one or two coins they find worth a few thousand dollars, but this is the first time we get someone with a whole cache of buried coins... It is a million to one chance, even harder than winning the lottery," Kagin told ABCNews.com. 
 
 The couple is trying to remain anonymous after finding the five cans of coins last spring on their Tiburon property in northern California and conducted an interview with Kagin. 
 
 WATCH: $10M Gold-Coin Surprise Uncovered in Calif. 
 
 "I never would have thought we would have found something like this. However, in a weird way I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for it," the couple said. 
 
 "I saw an old can sticking out of the ground on a trail that we had walked almost every day for many, many years. I was looking down in the right spot and saw the side of the can. I bent over to scrape some moss off and noticed that it had both ends on it," they said. 
 
 It was the first of five cans to be unearthed, each packed with gold coins. 
 
 "Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition," said Kagin told ABCNews.com. 
 
 He said that the couple plan to sell most of the coins, but before they do, they are "loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens Thursday in Atlanta." 
 
 "Some of the rarest coins could fetch as much as $1 million apiece," said Kagin. He also said that they wish to sell 90 percent of the collection through Amazon.com and on the company's website. 
 
 "We'd like to help other people with some of this money. There are people in our community who are hungry and don't have enough to eat. We'll also donate to the arts and other overlooked causes. In a way it has been good to have time between finding the coins and being able to sell them in order to prepare and adjust. It's given us an opportunity to think about how to give back," said the couple. 
 
 Kagin and his colleague David McCarthy, senior numismatist and researcher at Kagin's, met with the couple last April, two months after the hoard was found. 
 
 When McCarthy and Kagin told the couple that their bonanza will be in the annals of numismatic stories for quite some time, the couple said, "It would have been quite a pity not to share the magnitude of our find. We want to keep the story of these coins intact for posterity." ||||| Photo: Kagin's Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Image 2 of 11 Nineteenth century gold coins are viewed in this undated handout photo obtained February 26, 2014 courtesy of Kagin's, Inc. A California couple out walking their dog struck it rich by unearthing a horde of buried gold coins, worth more than $10 million according to experts. The so-called Saddle Ridge find is believed to be the most valuable treasure trove ever discovered in the United States, according to Kagin's Inc, which specializes in ancient gold coins. The couple, named only as John and Mary, spotted a partially buried can jutting out of the ground -- and after further digging found seven more, with more than 1,400 gold coins. "This family literally found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," said company boss Donald Kagin, adding that most of the coins date from the late 19th century. "What's really significant about this find... is that unlike other hoards and treasures, this one includes a great variety of dates, many of which are in pristine condition," he added. AFP PHOTO/KAGIN'S, INC. / HANDOUT == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO / KAGIN'S, INC." / NO MARKETING / NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images less Nineteenth century gold coins are viewed in this undated handout photo obtained February 26, 2014 courtesy of Kagin's, Inc. A California couple out walking their dog struck it rich by unearthing a horde of ... more Photo: AFP/Getty Images Image 3 of 11 An 1890 double eagle photographed next to the can and stick used to discover the hoard Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less An 1890 double eagle photographed next to the can and stick used to discover the hoard Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 4 of 11 A view of the old San Francisco Mint is seen through a stereoscopic viewer next to a copy of "Wasp", a mid-19th Century satirical magazine on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 in Lafayette, Calif. Robert Chandler, a foremost historian of the Old West believes that the recently found stash of gold coins worth $10 million is likely to be the accumulation of someone's life savings. less A view of the old San Francisco Mint is seen through a stereoscopic viewer next to a copy of "Wasp", a mid-19th Century satirical magazine on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 in Lafayette, Calif. Robert Chandler, a ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 5 of 11 Some of the buried cans that contained the gold coins were displayed at Kagin's Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less Some of the buried cans that contained the gold coins were displayed at Kagin's Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 6 of 11 Photos show cans found in the ground and how they were filled with coins. A sampling of the fortune of 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California. Photos show cans found in the ground and how they were filled with coins. A sampling of the fortune of 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California. Photo: Kagin's Image 7 of 11 Kagin's specialists had the coins carefully cleaned and placed in acrylic cases for safe keeping Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less Kagin's specialists had the coins carefully cleaned and placed in acrylic cases for safe keeping Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 8 of 11 Members of the staff at Kagin's showed the buried cans that contained the coins and the stick used to dig them up Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less Members of the staff at Kagin's showed the buried cans that contained the coins and the stick used to dig them up Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 9 of 11 A $20 gold piece minted in San Francisco in 1866, part of the found fortune, Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less A $20 gold piece minted in San Francisco in 1866, part of the found fortune, Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 10 of 11 An 1866 gold piece photographed next to the can where it was found Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for sale on Amazon and to serious collectors by the numismatics experts at Kagin's. less An 1866 gold piece photographed next to the can where it was found Thursday February 20, 2014 in Tiburon, Calif. A fortune in 19th century gold coins found in the Gold Country of California will soon be for ... more Photo: The Chronicle Image 11 of 11 Gold coin update: Heist explanation unlikely 1 / 11 Back to Gallery 
 
 Despite the surge of speculation about the Saddle Ridge Hoard coming from the 1901 theft of $30,000 in gold coins from the old U.S. Mint in San Francisco, leading historians and Mint officials say that explanation doesn’t cut it. 
 
 “There is nothing connecting these coins to any theft from the Mint,” said U.S. Mint spokesman Adam Stump. “We’ve done quite a bit of research, and we’ve got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we’d be going after it.” 
 
 The 1901 theft was uncovered on June 29 of that year. Investigators found six bags of “Double Eagles” – as $20 gold coins were called – missing, and concluded they had been spirited out over the previous few months. The mint’s chief clerk, Walter Dimmick of Oakland, was convicted of the crime, but the booty was never recovered. 
 
 Theories about the origins of the Saddle Ridge coins have swirled around the world for more than a week, and many of those center around probably the most valuable coin in the Saddle Ridge collection – the 1866 “No Motto” $20 gold coin minted in San Francisco. It is so-called because the back of the piece does not read “In God We Trust,” and 1866 is year the government started stamping those words on $20 coins made in San Francisco. 
 
 Some believe the “No Motto” 1866 Double Eagle (as $20 gold coins were referred to) is a one of a kind, and that one such coin was taken in the 1901 theft — but a couple of facts refute that. 
 
 According to the Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins, there were actually 120,000 “No Motto” Double Eagles stamped in San Francisco that year before the changeover. There were then 842,250 Double Eagles created with the motto in 1866, making their predecessor in the same year rare and valuable. Also, according to U.S. Mint officials and Richard Kelly, who wrote the authoritative book “A Mighty Fortress…the Stories Behind the 2nd San Francisco Mint,” all of the coins stolen in 1901 were of recent vintage. 
 
 “Nobody has a listing of the exact dates of those stolen coins, but we assume from the times and all the records that they were new coins,” said Kelly, who has researched the San Francisco Mint so thoroughly that national archive officials referred a reporter to him. “Back then, once coins were printed they flew out of the mint.” 
 
 The age range of the Saddle Ridge Hoard thus makes them unlikely for that heist, since they range from 1847 to 1894. Only one-third of them appear to have been uncirculated, meaning the rest were spent as money – and the mint did not keep circulated coins in any volume on hand. 
 
 Another fact worth noting is that not all of the Saddle Ridge coins are Double Eagles. The hoard consists of 1,427 coins with a face value of $27,980 – and though most are Double Eagles, 50 are $10 coins and four are $5 coins. Most were printed in San Francisco, but others were made in New Orleans and Georgia. 
 
 Don Kagin, the Tiburon coin dealer and rare-coins author who is shepherding the sale of the hoard for the couple who discovered it in their Gold Country back yard, said the mint theory is just one of hundreds popping up – from people claiming their great-grandfathers buried it to stories of Black Bart or other bandits hiding their stash. Some say the coins were found in Jackson, among other cities – but Kagin said they are all wrong, and the couple are keeping their identity secret. 
 
 “If anybody wants to send us a list of missing coins with some specifics, we’ll be happy to help them out,” Kagin said. “But not a single theory that has come to us indicates this hoard came from anything other than a single person who didn’t trust banks. The attorneys of the owners of the coins thoroughly searched property records and researched this, and the only thing they could determine is that whoever buried the coins might have been in the mining industry.” 
 
 –Kevin Fagan, The San Francisco Chronicle
– The "buried treasure" found by a California couple out walking their dog—an estimated $11 million worth of rare gold coins from the 1800s—has started to be auctioned off. Last night at the Old San Francisco Mint, an 1874 $20 double eagle sold for $15,000, the AP reports. A few other coins were also auctioned there, and most of the remaining 1,400 are now on sale on Amazon.com and Kagins.com, according to the firm handling the sale. The anonymous couple, who found the coins on their own property, are also keeping a few. As for the money they make, they'll pay bills and donate to local charities—and the money from last night's auction will help turn the Old San Francisco Mint into a museum. About 60 of the coins will be displayed there, USA Today reports. It's still not clear where the coins, most of which are in mint condition, came from—the numismatist who valued the coins and is handling the sale says theories (none of which panned out) have linked them to stagecoach bandit Black Bart, outlaw Jesse James, and a heist at the San Francisco Mint. And, of course, there are people out there who claim the coins belonged to their distant relatives—one of whom has threatened to sue. But none of the stories so far is legit, according to federal officials.