Recluse's gold fortune to be auctioned for taxes
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Even though he lived in the same quiet neighborhood for decades, no one seemed to know Walter Samaszko Jr. He was so unknown that weeks passed before authorities discovered he had died in his modest Carson City home.
When cleanup crews arrived, they made another startling discovery: The 69-year-old man who had lived so simply had a vast collection of thousands of gold coins worth millions of dollars stashed in old ammunition boxes in his garage.
About half of the collection's value will be auctioned off Tuesday in a Carson City courtroom to satisfy some $800,000 in government estate taxes and fees.
The profits beyond that amount will go to a substitute teacher in San Rafael, Calif., who is Samaszko's first cousin and sole heir. It took an exhaustive search to locate Arlene Magdanz.
The auction will include only the bullion coin collection, not the collector's edition coins, said Alan Glover, Carson City's clerk recorder who will oversee the auction.
"They're buying and bidding on an ounce of gold, pure gold by the weight," Glover said.
The bidders are all professional coin collectors who regularly make purchases ranging from $3 million to $10 million, he added.
Coins have been grouped into 11 sets based on type, and the sets have been weighed by the ounce. The collections range from 24.1 troy ounces to 602 troy ounces.
In total, about 135 pounds of gold is to be sold at auction, which Glover said is expected to net about $3 million. Another auction for the larger half of the collection is likely later, he said.
Officials discovered the trove neatly wrapped and stored mostly in ammunition boxes stacked on top of each other. There were more than 2,900 Austrian coins, many from 1915; more than 5,000 from Mexico; at least 500 from Britain; 300 U.S. gold pieces, some dating to 1880; and more than 100 U.S. gold pieces as old as the 1890s.
Among the coins were meticulous records of the purchases dating back to at least 1964, when gold averaged about $35 per ounce. The precious metal currently sells for nearly $1,600 an ounce.
Authorities believe that his mother, who lived with Samaszko until her death in 1992, purchased most of the coins.
Despite the millions of dollars in his garage, Samaszko didn't appear to lead a luxurious life. Records show he only withdrew about $500 a month to pay modest bills. He died with $1,200 in a checking account and just a bit more than $165,000 in a money market and mutual fund account.
Since learning of her inheritance, Magdanz has shunned publicity and not made any comments about the fortune.
When cleanup crews arrived, they made another startling discovery: The 69-year-old man who had lived so simply had a vast collection of thousands of gold coins worth millions of dollars stashed in old ammunition boxes in his garage.
About half of the collection's value will be auctioned off Tuesday in a Carson City courtroom to satisfy some $800,000 in government estate taxes and fees.
The profits beyond that amount will go to a substitute teacher in San Rafael, Calif., who is Samaszko's first cousin and sole heir. It took an exhaustive search to locate Arlene Magdanz.
The auction will include only the bullion coin collection, not the collector's edition coins, said Alan Glover, Carson City's clerk recorder who will oversee the auction.
"They're buying and bidding on an ounce of gold, pure gold by the weight," Glover said.
The bidders are all professional coin collectors who regularly make purchases ranging from $3 million to $10 million, he added.
Coins have been grouped into 11 sets based on type, and the sets have been weighed by the ounce. The collections range from 24.1 troy ounces to 602 troy ounces.
In total, about 135 pounds of gold is to be sold at auction, which Glover said is expected to net about $3 million. Another auction for the larger half of the collection is likely later, he said.
Officials discovered the trove neatly wrapped and stored mostly in ammunition boxes stacked on top of each other. There were more than 2,900 Austrian coins, many from 1915; more than 5,000 from Mexico; at least 500 from Britain; 300 U.S. gold pieces, some dating to 1880; and more than 100 U.S. gold pieces as old as the 1890s.
Among the coins were meticulous records of the purchases dating back to at least 1964, when gold averaged about $35 per ounce. The precious metal currently sells for nearly $1,600 an ounce.
Authorities believe that his mother, who lived with Samaszko until her death in 1992, purchased most of the coins.
Despite the millions of dollars in his garage, Samaszko didn't appear to lead a luxurious life. Records show he only withdrew about $500 a month to pay modest bills. He died with $1,200 in a checking account and just a bit more than $165,000 in a money market and mutual fund account.
Since learning of her inheritance, Magdanz has shunned publicity and not made any comments about the fortune.
Gold is where you find it.
Since learning of her inheiritance, Magdanz has shunned publicity and not made any comments about the fortune. In other words, she is already playing the part of a stuck up snob.
@JLOÂ No JLO who Iam sure yoou look nothing like. she is avoiding vultures, scammers, leaches, and theives. It is a very smart move on her part. Her real friends won't care how much she has. She doesn't need the others.
@JLOÂ So she will not answer your calls??
@yesiam @JLO So far she's not answering mine.  =)
@JLO It's more likely the IRS is camped out on her doorstep waiting for their "cut" from her.She also,more than likely, has quite a few new friends she didn't know she had. Under the circumstances,shunning publicity is understandable.
It's a shame no one knew about his collection .... the government would have never gotten one red cent if he was my uncle/cousin/relative and I knew what was in the garage. Estate? Oh it was worth about $165k plus whatever the house will fetch. All I found was an old tv and a few cans of soup.
@badcat Aren't you an advocate of higher taxes of the 1%% Badcat? This man was clearly part of the wealthy class that aren't paying their fair share in this country.
Estate taxes are so wrong..... taxing after tax money is just criminal
Reminder: Get in touch with creepy estranged uncle and help him clean his garage....you never know.
@UselessOpinion Cousin Useless!  How awesome to run into you on a forum like this!
So why when you die and owe $800,000 in taxes and fees..
They need to sell off $ 3,000,000 of his stuff??
@uknow2Â Yep, he gets taxed for dieing, estate tax, inheritance tax, then income tax to the lady recieving this money. By the time she gets anything at all it may be 30%% of the original value of the coins. This is ridiculous!! If you have any assets like this sitting around and want to keep it in the family, best to quietly hand them over to your loved ones and stuff it in a safe under the house. Once the government gets wind of it you might as well just dump it on the street with a "FREE" sign on it.
Taxes, death, then more taxes.
"When cleanup crews arrived, they made another startling discovery:"
I imagine that those cleanup crews probably took a bonus for a job well done that day.
I was suprised there was that much left. To easy to pocket coins.
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@TheUglyTruth the same could be said about any bank or many private companies too.
Of course, the important stuff first - the government gets its cut. Amazing how when there is a large amount of $$ involved, the government agents show up and organize the auction to ensure they get their share before anybody else even knows what is going on.
@Justanother1 There was no one else to "show up" or "organize". The cousin had to be tracked down with "an exhaustive search".