Like Gus Chiggins, Queens resident Raffi Stepanian is a modern day prospector with humble dreams: to avoid coyotes, and find his fortune in the sidewalks of midtown Manhattan. Stepanian made waves last summer when he was interviewed by the Post about panning for bits of gold, platinum and rare gems in the Diamond District. He has said that he makes up to $300 dollars a day: "The streets of 47th Street are literally paved with gold." More recently, Stepanian has been featured on the new show Penn and Teller Tell a Lie. Below, you can see that segment on him, as well as another video of Stepanian doing his thing. Of course, if Stepanian really wanted to make some money, he'd go straight for the taxi medallion gold. more ›

Which is the better investment: gold or a taxi medallion? Despite Glenn Beck's protestations on behalf of Big Gold, it really is a taxi medallion—the cost of an NYC taxicab license has increased more than 1,000 percent since 1980, and can now safely be called a better investment than gold. Someone better tell Master P to change his song to "Taxi Cabs In They Mouth." more ›

A 76-year-old Brooklyn man was taken for a $300,000 ride when two women convinced him to invest his money in gold coins, but there was never any gold involved: According to the Post, "drifters...married to brothers in a gypsy clan" Reeva Johnson, 24, and Holly Mitchell, 23, were busted on charges including grand larceny when one of the elderly man's friend got suspicious. more ›

There was a big Sweets & Snacks Expo and we weren't invited, but luckily the internet has delivered this morsel from the event. Jelly Belly inventor David Klein has unveiled the ultimate gourmet jelly bean (or as he calls it the "next generation" of jelly bean). The Beyond Gourmet bean will be laced in 24-karat gold-leaf, because that is really just the best way to make a regular ol' food item gourmet (right golden Twinkie?). more ›

Of course a $2MM, jewel-encrusted, 18-karat gold version of Monopoly exists, and of course it's going to be on display (this Friday) on Wall Street (specifically, at the Museum of American Finance). It's the most expensive version of the board game ever created, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sidney Mobell (who fancies himself an "unconventional crafter of decadence") is responsible for the set, and says the only time it was played on was during a showdown between him and England’s former Prime Minster Edward Heath. It will now be on Wall Street for two years, but Mobell says it's "not for sale." Aw shucks, a $2MM board game is just what we need to get through this financial crisis. more ›

On July 7th, former Beatle Ringo Starr will turn 70 years old—and starting on that day the Metropolitan Museum of Art will display his gold-plated snare drum in a special exhibition running through December. more ›

We received an email this morning which alerted us that somewhere in New York City, right now, there is $10,000 in U.S. mint one-dollar coins buried in a treasure chest. more ›

Last night Marina Abramović and her VIPs gathered at MoMA for a closing celebration of the artist's retrospective there. Our invite must have gotten lost in the mail (it seems superfans like Paco Blancas and Josephine Decker also didn't earn their way in), but here's a look at who was in attendance, including Courtney Love and her new face. more ›

Yesterday at the Belvedere Hotel the Manhattan DA auctioned off glitzy bracelets, watches and cuff links from the collections of two convicted Wall Street crooks. Benefits from the sale will got to victims of equities trader David Holzer and onetime Morgan Stanley boss Richard Garaventa. The former was sentenced to 15 years after stealing $15 million from friends, claiming he’d invest it. The latter took $2.5 million from his company and is serving two-six years. Both bought lots of jewelry. more ›

Sorry to disillusion you, but Cash4Gold, the company that targets poor, desperate late-night TV watchers with endorsements by equally cash-strapped celebrities, is a scam! Okay, maybe you already knew that. But unless you're one of the poor chumps who dialed their 1-800 number, you don't know how they fleece customers—4 Cash!—or what the state plans to do about it. more ›

The Scarsdale mom who stole $12 million in gold from her job at a Queens jewelry manufacturer has been sentenced to six months behind bars, according to the Post. Teresa Tambunting pleaded guilty after investigators realized she had stolen about 500 pounds of gold — one piece at a time — by slipping the items into the lining of her purse. Law enforcement sources told the tabloid the 51-year-old former vault manager got such a lenient sentence because had no criminal record, she turned herself in, and she returned all of the gold she had taken (though she brought it back bit-by-bit). "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she reportedly told Queens Supreme Court Justice Pauline Mullings. more ›

In some ways, Teresa Tambunting is just like us. The Daily News reports that the 50-year-old Scarsdale wife and mother had worried about the recession; a nephew said, "[Tambunting and her husband] were saying this was one of their worst years, but this year is [going to be] much better." But one way she's different is that she stole $12 million in gold coins from her employer, a Queens jewelry manufacturer—by way of hiding the coins in the lining of her purse—over six years. While Tambunting returned $800,000 worth of the coins to the company and investigators have found $7.3 million that she "allegedly kept stashed in 12 large plastic treasure chests in her home," about $4.7 million of the booty is missing. Tambunting's legal strategy may involve an "obsessive-compulsive disorder" defense. more ›

Stay classy, Scarsdale: In the same week that the Mad Mom roadside abandonment story made headlines, another Scarsdale mom is in the news for stealing an estimated $12 million in gold from the Queens jewelry manufacturer where she worked as a vault manager. And according to her own confession, she did it one piece at a time over the course of six years! 50-year-old Teresa Tambunting's gold-hoarding hobby went unnoticed until January, when auditors at Jacmel Jewelry's Long Island City headquarters reported losses over the normal 3% rate. more ›

Served in a martini glassWhat makes the cocktail worth your (or presumably, some investment banker's) hard earned 50 bucks? Gold of course! It's the...gold standard of novelty menu items. This one, more specifically, promises "gold-wrapped olives and a golden spear designed by Rick Toscano." Though the photo seems to show flakes and a glorified wooden toothpick. Dare we say the same result could come from a bottle of Goldschläger? more ›

At last, a gold-encrusted dessert fit for a working class budget. Unlike the $26 pancakes or the $25,000 frrrozen haute chocolate, these little sweets still have a single-digit price tag. more ›

Manhattan real estate sales set a record in the fourth quarter of 2007, with residential sales averaging out to be $1.4 million (according to data from Prudential Douglas Elliman), an increase of 17.6% over 2006's fourth quarter. However impressive that statistic is, the growth was primarily driven by super high-end sales of at least $10 million. more ›

Instead of a lengthy 2007 “best of” food list, we proudly present you (via The Gurgling Cod) with this single edible, the latest and hopefully last stunt luxury foodstuff in a year remorselessly filled with them. It comes, somewhat improbably and definitely ironically, from the gift shop at the newly opened New Museum, and it’s got karats: Edible gold crumbled into capsules, a massive $275 for the starter set. Shown here to the left, a stunning collection of three at $91.67 a pop. But what a rush. more ›