The view of San Francisco a seen through the trees from Ina Coolbrith Park in San Francisco May 11, 2026. An anonymous pair of friends buried $10,000 worth of $1 coins a foot underground somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall, posting only a short riddle with clues on Reddit.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
The riddle appeared on Reddit nearly two weeks ago: 103 words, each carefully chosen, meant to lead the most clever and adventurous of Bay Area residents to a treasure chest laden with $10,000 worth of gleaming dollar coins.
For the second year in a row, an anonymous pair of 30-something friends pooled their resources and buried the booty a foot underground somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall.
A large hole is seen dug beneath a tangled coastal tea tree in San Francisco May 11, 2026. An anonymous pair of friends buried $10,000 worth of $1 coins a foot underground somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall, posting only a short riddle with clues on Reddit.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
But nearly two weeks after the clues were posted, the puzzle has stumped a city filled with software engineers, AI whizzes and local historians. A few have come close, but no one has yet prevailed in locating the 150-pound treasure chest. In their frenzied search, some have even damaged city parks with illegal digging, officials said, leaving unfilled holes and hitting irrigation lines.
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Still, the thrill of the chase has captivated — and tormented — hundreds of people in San Francisco. A post on the city’s Reddit page has drawn more than 1,000 comments, with sleuths swapping theories, looking for treasure hunting buddies and sharing stories about expeditions that took them up and down steep stairs, on blustery ferry rides and into parks with stunning vistas.
For some, the challenge to solve a difficult puzzle and uncover the prize has become all-consuming — people said they have memorized the six-stanza poem of clues and had dreams about finding the treasure. Someone said they laminated the poem so they could read it in the shower.
Two anonymous 30-something friends created a six-stanza poem with clues meant to lead people to a treasure chest with $10,000 worth of coins buried somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall.
Provided by Buried Treasure, San Francisco
“Each day I wake with a palpable excitement,” one person wrote on Reddit.
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“Somebody please find this treasure soon so that I can go back to my life. My family misses me and my cats are hungry,” another said.
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The organizers created a similar treasure hunt last year, but apparently underestimated the braininess and collaboration of the people of San Francisco. Someone quickly cracked the code and found the treasure in 11 hours.
This time, the friends said they wanted to “do it right,” making a harder puzzle that benefits those physically exploring the city, rather than relying on AI or other technology.
The men, both San Francisco residents, spoke with the Chronicle on the condition of anonymity out of safety concerns — organizers of more lucrative treasure hunts have been threatened and kidnapped, they said — and in keeping with the spirit of mystery. “The anonymity is a little bit of an extra special sauce,” one said.
They said they were inspired by the lore of their childhoods, which were filled with stories about pirates and buried treasure in adventure magazines and movies like “Indiana Jones” and “The Goonies.”
The organizers said they love exploring the city, “finding the little nooks and crannies and special spots that are under the radar,” and wanted to create something that “gets people out looking under metaphorical and literal rocks, and really celebrating where they live.”
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“We feel like this city is itself a treasure,” one organizer said. “To live here is a gift.”
For this hunt, the organizers pulled $10,000 from their own bank accounts in $1 coin denominations, which they admitted was “not a great financial decision.” Amassing the coins took multiple trips to multiple banks to keep from raising any red flags.
A treasure chest with $10,000 worth of dollar coins sits buried a foot underground somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall. No one had found the 150-pound chest as of May 12, 2026, nearly two weeks since the treasure hunt was launched.
Provided by Buried Treasure, San Francisco
The pair said they cannot afford to organize another hunt unless a wealthy benefactor steps forward to fund the fun. (One of the few personal details they were willing to reveal was that they do not work in the high-paying tech sector.)
In order to bury the money in the same weather-proof, aluminum chest used in the first treasure hunt, the organizers reached out anonymously to the prior winner and sent an “even more anonymous” courier to pick up the box, they said.
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The coins fit perfectly.
They buried the bounty in an undisclosed location several months before the treasure hunt was launched to prevent anyone from finding it by recognizing recently overturned grass, sand or dirt.
Then (without using AI, they said), the men wrote the poem on an old-timey map that looks fit for a pirate. They tinkered over the clues until reaching a point where “every word is thought over and means something.”
The poem is the only clue and the rules of the game are simple: Finders keepers.
The view of San Francisco as seen from Ina Coolbrith Park in San Francisco Monday, May 11, 2026. An anonymous pair of friends buried $10,000 worth of $1 coins a foot underground somewhere within 7 miles of San Francisco City Hall, posting only a short riddle with clues on Reddit.
Jessica Christian/S.F. Chronicle
The launch on Reddit immediately sparked a frenzy of people developing hunches and mulling over clues. Some said they skipped work or school and headed outside that day, scouring Aquatic Park, Stern Grove, Angel Island and dozens more parks, beaches, churches, trails and historic buildings around the city.
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Within 10 minutes of glancing over the clues, Gracie Oliva, an outdoor guide in the Bay Area, said she was hooked on the challenge and already brewing up ideas.
Struck by one line in the poem, Oliva and her co-worker went immediately after work that day to the intersection of Powell and North Point streets in Fisherman’s Wharf — each armed with a hand trowel for discreet digging (which helps eliminate “shovel shame,” she said).
They poked around in some raised flower beds and asked employees at a parking kiosk, “Have you seen any strange behavior lately? Maybe someone carrying an enormous box of gold coins?”
The answer was no. But their hunt for treasure was met with enthusiasm and well wishes from strangers.
“Everyone we’ve talked to has been like, ‘Wow, that’s so cool,’” Oliva said. “The thing that comes up time and time again is like, ‘Wow, this is so San Francisco.’”
The enthusiasm of some treasure hunters appears to have led to some digging-induced damage at public parks.
Daniel Montes, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, said illegal digging had not been an issue until this weekend, when gardeners noticed damage at Francisco, Ina Coolbrith, Washington Square and Pioneer parks in the North Beach and Russian Hill areas.
Montes said city gardeners found unfilled or improperly filled holes, trampled plants, damaged irrigation lines and displaced ornamental rocks, although staff were still assessing the extent of the damage and making repairs as of late Monday, Montes said.
In response to the increasing popularity of treasure hunting in recent years, he said, the parks department created a permit process for digging in city parks.
“Our parks are important neighborhood hubs and we want to make sure they remain in tip-top shape for everyone who depends on them,” Montes said. Permits “help protect park landscapes, infrastructure, and public safety.”
The organizers have since updated their website and Reddit posts, calling on participants to engage in “low impact” treasure hunting. People should fill in holes, leave the landscape better than they found it and “celebrate the city, don’t desecrate it,” they wrote.
The organizers also clarified that that treasure chest is not buried under “some nice manicured lawn, or cared for planter, or under irrigation lines.”
In the weeks since the hunt started, Oliva said she created a spreadsheet with the poem, possible meanings for each line, maps and a list of locations that other treasure hunters said they checked.
Meanwhile, she has been constantly refreshing the Reddit thread and the organizer’s website, which they said they will update when the treasure has been found. She dissects the clues at home after work and texts with her friend in a frenzy, chasing down ideas.
“My partner definitely thinks I’m starting to get obsessive, which is probably not inaccurate,” she said.
Last weekend, Oliva biked the length of Powell Street, taking photos along the way of certain vantage points and stopping at Washington Square Park, a string of cryptic clues ringing in her mind: “Stern wood haven north and powell, off back-ward.”
She stood facing a statue of Benjamin Franklin, where a time capsule was buried in 1979. One item inside the capsule was a tin of mints, which Oliva thought was a possible link to another line in the poem: “Under stone this mint rests buried in keep.”
“I’m about to get $10,000,” she thought, digging into a pile of woodchips raised above the dirt. “This is crazy.”
But like treasure hunters across the city experiencing similar epiphanies, Oliva came up empty — and a little disappointed.
The excitement soon returned. She made plans to scope out Angel Island, another adventure and excuse to play tourist in her own city.
“It’s still out there,” she said, “and I get to still do this.”