How to hide your gold if you were a Chinese miner during the gold rush,During the California gold ru

How to hide your gold if you were a Chinese miner during the gold rush,During the California gold rush of 1849, some of the most far away immigrants to the gold fields came from China, who endured many hardships trying to strike it rich.  Over the next decade, around 100,000 Chinese would migrate to the west coast in the hopes of a better life.  While most people who traveled to the gold fields struck out, the Chinese overall were typically more successful than others.  This had little to do with luck, but was due to the fact that they were willing to put much more effort into mining their claims than most other miners.  In Chinese mining camps today it is not uncommon to find large piles of rocks everywhere.  This was because the Chinese would literally leave no stone left unturned in the search for gold.Of course, the acquisition of such wealth didn’t come without risks.  Gold rush era California was a lawless territory rife with thieves, robbers, and outlaws.  Chinese miners made especially easy targets for heavily armed bands of cutthroats and ruffians.  Not to mention, on the long journey home they were often prey to corrupt customs officials, tax collectors, and pirates.  In order to keep their gold safe, Chinese miners often found ingenious ways to hide it, often in plain sight.  One common method was to melt the gold into common items such as pots, pans, cups, utensils, or small trinkets.  They would then coat them in grease or soot so that the items would look like cast iron or pewter.  Unless scrutinized closely, no one would guess the items were gold.  Once they returned home to China, the miners would then melt their gold into bars and ingots. -- source link

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