http://rbth.com/arts/lifestyle/2017...-worth-of-gold-bullion-in-russian-tank_739211 British collector Nick Mead chanced upon five gold bars in a Russian T54/69 tank he purchased, UK newspaper The Sun reported on April 9. To their utter surprise, Mead and a mechanic opened the fuel compartment and found the hidden treasure. He traded a military lorry and an old self-propelled gun for the T54/69 on eBay in a deal worth roughly $37,000 (£30,000). The gold bars, weighing up to five kg each, are estimated to be worth about $2.5 million (£2 million) in total. The men didn't know what to do, so they called the police. They believe the gold was looted by Iraqi soldiers, who used the tank in Kuwait during the Gulf War (1990-1991). The vehicle was eventually captured by the international coalition that included the UK. About 300 T54 tanks were sold by the USSR to Baghdad in 1959-68. Mead already has about 150 military vehicles in his collection and gives people the chance to drive his tanks on his farm in Northamptonshire, England.
The reported value of the gold is wrong - 5 bars of gold at 5kg = 25kg. Gold is currently about US$40,500 per kg, so that's a total value of just over $1m, not the reported figure of $2.5m
To be fair, with a collection of 150 military vehicles it sure doesn't sound like he needs the money.
Very true. But I would still do everything possible to keep it from falling into the evil hands of the government, where it would surely be wasted or used against us. I guess it is also possible that the govt. would not want it because according to them, gold is an arcane barbarous relic that has no value or use in todays society.................
So a Kuwaiti was the original owner, it was looted from him/her stack at some point during the occupation of Kuwait, an Iraqi officer stashed this loot in the fuel compartment of a tank but never got to pick it up (maybe he's dead?). These bars were crossing borders unnoticed within the tank until their recent rediscovery. Just found this from the archive of the NY Times: Obviously more of a few kilos were unaccounted for. Somebody even made a pretty good movie about this, starring George Clooney.
