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Comment by mfoy_ | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't it be ironic if it was found a few years after it was hidden, or maybe even before he announced the Hunt...

I mean, the finder would probably think "best not tell people where I got this from" a la Counte of Monte Cristo.

He has publically stated that there is significant financial incentive for whoever finds the chest to report that it has, in fact, been discovered. Presumably some sort of IOU note contained within?

Here is a fantastic podcast describing Fenn’s story: http://www.eisradio.org/item/003/

I believe the guy has stated recently that it remains unfound.

He also claims to be the only person to know the location, therefore for him to verify that, he would have had to visit it himself. He's now 86 and probably not able to hike into the mountains to check. So perhaps it's not far from a road?

Or he has a remote game camera set up for it?

Or he assumes people will tell him when they find it?

Or he has access to aerial surveys that indicate that there was no digging at the site.

Or the treasure is of the form "take this letter to the bank in order to get your reward".

Or maybe he is confident it is not found because it can't be found because it is a hoax.

GPS tracking? Some kind of tamper-detection with a sender? At his budget he could be communicating through satellites.

would need a permanent power source to do that. batteries slowly leak power even if unused. with a solar charger batteries would eventually wear out from the charge cycling. GPS and satellite communication is relatively power hungry. plus, the radio emissions would be a dead giveaway.

Good points.

In the chest is 40lbs of lead and a key with a note. The key is to a safe deposit box and the note says what bank and where. He also has a key to the same box and can check that box whenever he wants. He knows it's found when the real loot in the safe deposit box is gone.

> So perhaps it's not far from a road?

This is explicitly declared in the fine article. It's one of the clues referred to in the title.

He was 80 when he hauled a 40lb chest from his car to the hiding place, so presumably he could visit it now.

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