(CNN) -- Chief Clerk Walter Dimmick was convicted of stealing six bags of gold coins -- worth $30,000 -- from the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1901. 
 
 More than 100 years later, a California couple unearthed a secret stash of coins, with a combined face value of about $28,000. Most were minted in San Francisco. 
 
 Coincidence? 
 
 Sure is, said Adam Stump, spokesman for the U.S. Mint. 
 
 "We do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility," he told CNN. 
 
 The spokesman was responding to the latest wave of speculation that kicked off after The San Francisco Chronicle published a report Monday, suggesting a turn-of-the-century heist could explain the possible provenance of the coins. 
 
 Separately, Stump told the newspaper: "We've done quite a bit of research, and we've got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we'd be going after it." 
 
 The coins from the 1901 heist were never found. 
 
 The so-called Saddle Ridge Hoard was discovered by a husband and wife in February 2013 on their property in Northern California. 
 
 Though the coins have a face value of approximately $28,000, experts believe they could fetch in excess of $10 million. 
 
 The treasure is known as the Saddle Ridge Hoard because it was discovered near a hill the couple called Saddle Ridge. 
 
 A golden mystery 
 
 The husband and wife were walking their dog when they spotted something metal on the ground. They dug and eventually discovered eight metal cans, containing more than 1,400 gold coins. 
 
 Restoring and cleaning the coins has taken months. 
 
 No one knows how they got there, or whom the coins might have belonged to. 
 
 Don Kagin, of Kagin's, Inc., is assisting the owners, who wish to remain anonymous. 
 
 "The best theory is that -- and this is collaborated somewhat with doing some research, title searches, etc. from back in 1800s -- that someone in the mining business, as he got his remuneration, his bonuses, whatever, he would take the gold from the banks and put it into the ground in these cans," he told CNN. 
 
 "Back then, they didn't always trust the banks." 
 
 Kagin dismissed the idea that the coins could be connected to the turn-of-the-century heist. 
 
 "If you had robbed the U.S. Mint in 1901, you'd have 1901, 1900, 1899 coins. But instead what you have here are coins from 1894 and before," he said. 
 
 "We vetted this long time ago. We know the story of Dimmick. The only thing that is remotely similar is the amount of value." 
 
 The coins, in $5, $10 and $20 denominations, date from 1847 to 1894. Many are in pristine condition, including at least 14 coins that are considered the finest known for their date and mint mark. 
 
 A highlight from the hoard is an 1866-S No Motto Double Eagle, valued at close to $1 million. 
 
 "Nothing resonates like buried treasure," Kagin said, as a smile broke across his face. "These are not just coins, but they are artifacts. They tell a story ... They speak to us. It's like holding history in your hands." 
 
 The couple is planning to sell most of the collection. Some will be sold on Kagin's website, but most on Amazon, probably in May. 
 
 "Unlike other hoards and treasures, this one includes a great variety of coins struck over many different years, and many of the coins are still in pristine condition," Kagin said. 
 
 "And add to that a wonderful human interest story: this family literally found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow." 
 
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 CNN's Dan Simon and Steve Forrest contributed to this report. ||||| A California couple who found a stash of buried gold coins valued at $10 million may not be so lucky after all. The coins may have been stolen from the U.S. Mint in 1900 and thus be the property of the government, according to a published report. 
 
 The San Francisco Chronicle's website reported that a search of the Haithi Trust Digital Library provided by Northern California fishing guide Jack Trout, who is also a historian and collector of rare coins, turned up the news of the theft. 
 
 WATCH: $10M Gold Coins May Be Linked to Heist 
 
 Play 
 
 The California couple, who have not been identified, spotted the edge of an old can on a path they had hiked many times before several months ago. Poking at the can was the first step in uncovering a buried treasure of rare coins estimated to be worth $10 million. 
 
 "It was like finding a hot potato," the couple told coin expert Don Kagin from Kagin's, Inc. The couple hired the president of Kagin's, Inc. and Holabird-Kagin Americana, a western Americana dealer and auctioneer, to represent them. 
 
 The coins are mostly uncirculated and in mint condition, and they add up in face value to $27,000. "Those two facts are a match of the gold heist in 1900 from the San Francisco Mint," the newspaper reported. 
 
 Jack Trout told the paper that an 1866 Liberty $20 gold piece without the words "In God We Trust" was part of the buried stash, and the coin may fetch over $1 million at auction because it's so rare. 
 
 "This was someone's private coin, created by the mint manager or someone with access to the inner workings of the Old Granite Lady (San Francisco Mint)," Trout told the newspaper. "It was likely created in revenge for the assassination of Lincoln the previous year (April 14, 1865). I don't believe that coin ever left The Mint until the robbery. For it to show up as part of the treasure find links it directly to that inside job at the turn of the century at the San Francisco Mint." 
 
 Mint spokesman Adam Stump issued this statement when contacted today by ABC News: "We do not have any information linking the Saddle Ridge Hoard coins to any thefts at any United States Mint facility. Surviving agency records from the San Francisco Mint have been retired to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), under Record Group 104. Access to the records is under NARA's jurisdiction: http://www.archives.gov/." 
 
 Last week, when news of the stash first broke, coin dealer Kagin spoke about the rarity of such a find. 
 
 "Since 1981, people have been coming to us with one or two coins they find worth a few thousand dollars, but this is the first time we get someone with a whole cache of buried coins... It is a million to one chance, even harder than winning the lottery," Kagin told ABCNews.com. 
 
 The couple is trying to remain anonymous after finding the five cans of coins last spring on their Tiburon property in northern California and conducted an interview with Kagin. 
 
 WATCH: $10M Gold-Coin Surprise Uncovered in Calif. 
 
 "I never would have thought we would have found something like this. However, in a weird way I feel like I have been preparing my whole life for it," the couple said. 
 
 "I saw an old can sticking out of the ground on a trail that we had walked almost every day for many, many years. I was looking down in the right spot and saw the side of the can. I bent over to scrape some moss off and noticed that it had both ends on it," they said. 
 
 It was the first of five cans to be unearthed, each packed with gold coins. 
 
 "Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition," said Kagin told ABCNews.com. 
 
 He said that the couple plan to sell most of the coins, but before they do, they are "loaning some to the American Numismatic Association for its National Money Show, which opens Thursday in Atlanta." 
 
 "Some of the rarest coins could fetch as much as $1 million apiece," said Kagin. He also said that they wish to sell 90 percent of the collection through Amazon.com and on the company's website. 
 
 "We'd like to help other people with some of this money. There are people in our community who are hungry and don't have enough to eat. We'll also donate to the arts and other overlooked causes. In a way it has been good to have time between finding the coins and being able to sell them in order to prepare and adjust. It's given us an opportunity to think about how to give back," said the couple. 
 
 Kagin and his colleague David McCarthy, senior numismatist and researcher at Kagin's, met with the couple last April, two months after the hoard was found. 
 
 When McCarthy and Kagin told the couple that their bonanza will be in the annals of numismatic stories for quite some time, the couple said, "It would have been quite a pity not to share the magnitude of our find. We want to keep the story of these coins intact for posterity."
– The only thing more mysterious than the identity of the couple who stumbled upon an estimated $10 million in US gold coins while walking their dog on their California property: Where did the gold come from? The San Francisco Chronicle floats a theory with all the intrigue and illegality you could hope for: Historian/coin collector/fishing guide Jack Trout provided the paper with a passage from the Bulletin of American Iron and Steel Association that references a $30,000 turn-of-the-century gold heist from the San Francisco Mint that he believes is linked to the coins. Lending credence to the theory: The unearthed 1,427 gold coins, dated 1847 to 1894, were mostly uncirculated and in chronological order, suggesting they hadn't entered the public realm. And though they are worth millions today, their face value is $27,000, which roughly syncs with what was taken from the mint. Trout also points to the buried stash's 1866 Liberty $20 gold piece not emblazoned with "In God We Trust"; he suspects it was a private coin created by a mint manager that never left the mint. "For it to show up as part of the treasure find links it directly" to the mint heist, he says. But the couple's coin broker is no fan of the mint robbery theory, telling the Chronicle he'd expect the haul would have included coins dated closer to the heist date. But a former SF Mint detective sees it as plausible: "Downstairs, we had vaults where we kept old coins that hadn't been put into circulation." PJMedia further digs up a 1906 congressional report that indicates mint clerk W.N. Dimmick was convicted of the mint theft, but the document doesn't state whether Dimmick revealed the coins' location, or if they had been recovered. ABC News notes that if the coins are indeed purloined government property, the couple may owe Uncle Sam more than a heck of a lot in taxes: They may have to turn over the entire haul, and get a finder's fee in return.