[ConSeannery]

He was paid 12.7 million from investors....to find gold coins worth 2 - 4 million? How does that make sense? Do all investors get their money back plus proceeds from gold sales, minus costs and a stipend or something?

Also the dude actually does look like a pirate

[raldi]

The gold used to mint the coins was just a sample of what's in the ship's hold.

The article says it's "thousands of pounds"; 1000 pounds of gold is worth $30M.

[esaym]

Maybe they saw the gold as an investment that would double in value every 10 years?

[oh_sigh]

Maybe they thought there were more gold coins than there actually were.