"Saddle Ridge" Hoard

[Number Six]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_Ridge_Hoard
http://forums.collectors.com/messagevie ... TARTPAGE=1

The question here for me is how does a high end hoard, the largest of its kind in US history, get stashed and then found, where the "owners" are able to get full control of it without serious inquiry into the origin of it and who the original owners of the gold coins may have been? Back when the hoard was stashed, a $20 gold coin in worn smooth condition had the same value as a stunning mintstate one of better date, the idea of collecting at that point had not developed with what were then just bullion coins. So why did the hoarder stash stunning mintstate coins?

One suggestion is that this was the group of coins that Walter Dimmick was charged with stealing from the mint but were never found:

"In 1900, Walter Dimmick was convicted of the theft of appoximately $30,000 in un circulated, gold coins - including double eagles from the San Francisco mint. One theory is that the gold was stolen by Walter Dimmick, an employee of the San Francisco Mint in the late 1800′s. Dimmick began working at the mint in 1898 and by 1901 was trusted with the keys to the vaults – until an audit revealed a $30,000 shortage in $20 Double Eagle coins, six bags in all. The Mint recognized that only someone with keys to the vault and free access to the building would have been able to remove that many heavy coins without being discovered. Dimmick immediately became a suspect.
Officials noted that Dimmick was the last one to count the bags of coins each night before the vaults were closed. Dimmick was arrested and since he had already been caught learning to forge the Superintendent’s name, taking money from the pay envelopes of other Mint employees, and stealing other government funds in his care, after nearly a month in the courtroom, he was convicted of stealing the $30,000 in gold double eagle coins (and two other charges). Dimmick was sentenced to nine years at the San Quentin prison in California.
The gold that Dimmick stole was never found. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_Ridge_Hoard