The Background Story
Many many years ago as the young nation known as the United States of America was experiencing growing pains, a bank in the midwest was robbed of a great treasure of gold coins. These coins were part of a collection of Old Spanish coins from the 17th century. Three of the four robbers with their less valuable Star and Flag coins were killed by the pursuing posse and the coins were recovered. The fourth robber with four highly prized Conquistador Coins was never captured. Today the Flag and Star coins are scattered in the wind held by private collectors. They surface occasionally at obscure coin dealerships and at auction houses. The rumored Conquistador Coins bearing the likeness of some old noble Spanish Conquistador would be worth a king's ransom today if they exist and could somehow be found! Only one of these coins is known to be in existence today and it is being held by an eccentric hillbilly miser who keeps it locked up at an undisclosed location.
Now for the fun part of the story. It has been said that a mysterious Desert Hermit spent most of his lonely existence looking for these lost coins. Even though he never found the coins he felt like they belonged to him anyway. He always felt he would find them just over that next hill or across that next canyon. It was rumored that this old hermit had found a treasure map of sorts while prospecting near the site of an old pioneer tragedy along the Nevada and California state line. Some folk speculate that the missing bank robber had the misfortune of hooking up with a doomed wagon train that was trying to save some time getting out west by taking an untried shortcut. No one knows for sure if the map existed but whenever the old hermit was asked about it he would always say
Then one day a group of 16 calvary soldiers out chasing Indians found the poor hermit's body out in the desert. No coins were found but the soldiers were delighted to find a map of sorts among the hermit's meager possessions. Not knowing how to interpret the map and not trusting each other they decided to cut the map into 16 pieces and each one keep a piece. Later when things settled down and they were out of the calvary they planned to meet and reunite the pieces of the map and search for the treasure. No one knows what became of those map pieces or if the legend about the lost Conquistador Coins is true. Legend says that on certain moonless nights when the wind is very still you can hear the old hermit still out there wandering the vast expanse of open desert searching for his lost coins and muttering
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