Prospectors, Investors and Colorado Diamonds
Prospectors, Investors and Colorado Diamonds
The History Guy remembers the greatest gem find in America, the Colorado diamond find of 1871 by Philip Arnold and John Slack. It is a hoax and history that deserves to be remembered.
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I’m no geologist, but as soon as you said rubies, emeralds, and diamonds were found together, I knew something was not kosher. I think the real lesson here is how greed or other strong emotions can make us practice self deception so readily and strongly. This characteristic of human behavior is the cornerstone of virtually all cons.
richard
—
MAGPIE, n. A bird whose thievish disposition suggested to someone that it might be taught to talk.
-Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914)
How about as a lesson "that’s what greed will get ya?"
Great story!!!!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Brilliant.
There was another similar scam in Utah that’s the same time
Clarence King had his own fascinating story. Aside from his career as a geologist, his private life was astounding. Though white, he passed for black and married a black woman and had a family with her. She never knew who he really was. "Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line" is by Martha A. Sandweiss.
how about that!
Slow the roll !! Sounds like a cartoon character !!
That was the most excited I have ever seen the history guy! Also, they were pirates! Because don’t all good stories contain Pirates????
It was on a Western show back in the day.
As a geologist, I always get a kick out of hearing this story. Even today, there are gullible investors out there willing to believe a story that is "too good to be true".
Well im confused. If they bought 20k worth of cheap quality jewels, why was Tiffany appraisal so much much higher
If it sounds to good to be true.
The lesson of the story is: greed trumps reason. Two uneducated men know that and fooled wealthy city slickers. 🤣
Didn’t see that coming. Wow.
Usually this type of scam was for gold or silver and wasa common event in the later half of the 19th century
The lesson is: "You can never cheat an honest man." All of those rich men were trying to get out of paying the "rubes" what their land was actually worth, & they, themselves, got swindled. If they’d been honest, & not precipitously greedy, they would never have fallen for it.
This was a story that deserved to be remembered heck; it’s a story that deserved to be told!!!
I love your channel but you talk way too fast
Greed is a disease of the Soul and when it’s perpetuated nobody wins
Fleecing robber barons is a public service, not a crime.
That’s hysterical! I sure do love seeing those cut-throat "businessmen" (crooks) getting worked over. Too bad that doesn’t happen more often. LOL
Fun stuff, THG. ☺️💜
It’s like a pirate story on land.
cool
Having been raised in Colorado (although I’d never heard this story), and having a smattering of knowledge about germs, I had an idea just where this was going. After all, salting gold mines was a time honored tradition in Colorado.
lol Probably just some karma coming back to haunt the fat cats that made their millions off of untold numbers of 49’ers. Gotta watch them KY boys, they’s slickr than a bucket of snot! lol
I enjoy your videos on a nearly daily basis, and this one is, now, my favorite. I love your enthusiasm, and it’s clear you do a lot of homework in preparation of each subject video. Thank you, History Guy. Thank you very much. Bless you.
The lesson to take from this is that wealth and connections to famous people simply cannot be substituted for technical expertise and hands-on experience. Also, beware of loose-lipped strangers with bags of goodies. Also also, hefty investment should be tempered by hefty skepticism.
Asbury Harpending published a book on the subject available here: http://www.books-about-california.com/Pages/The_Great_Diamond_Hoax/The_Great_Diamond_Hoax_Preface.html
Why is it that if wealthy people rob countless families blind it’s considered sound business but if regular people get the better end of a deal it’s a swindle?
How about this for a lesson. The greed of men will blind them to all things true…
This looks fantastic! Keep the youtube clips coming.
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LOL! They became victims of their own greed. I’m not sad that 2 underdogs outwitted the upper crust who controlled everything.
The Man isn’t that smart. Just has the money and power.
This was an episode of Maverick, including Tiffany examining the diamonds and being wrong about their value because he only traded in cut diamonds
1110am at ist on 1st November 2022
So then the question begs, where did the men get the gems to "salt" the site?
A well done scam.
Even Tiffany should have known that diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds do not occur naturally in the same location. Diamonds are only found in the USA today in Arkansas. Considering the vast mineral wealth of the American West, the investors just assumed that “of course” there would be diamonds. So they had a type of expectation bias where nothing could be excluded.
Love how two good ‘ol country boys totally scammed those who rejoiced in exploiting them as they had so many others !!
Greed gets caught ,again .
Nice story of a mining scam! Now, a footnote maybe should have mentioned that eventually, but briefly, there would be a REAL diamond mine in Northern Colorado. Kelsey Lake Mine, in the late 1990s, which did deliver some impressive gems before it was abandoned.
Love it!
geed, greed… It reminded of that old movie "The sting"
Is it known that Tiffany was not in on the scam?
Dude, learn to communicate in a calmer fashion
Effective cons work on people’s basic greed. The backers thought that they had ripped off the rubes.
I love this story. 🤯
Terrific video, very entertaining as well as informative as always. 🙂 thank you for sharing.
On a side note, Benjamin Butler also went by the alias Vincent Schiavelli. Honest!
This one made me laugh out loud!!