Hundreds join San Francisco scavenger hunt, winner finds $25,000 coin at Corona Heights Park

Hundreds of San Franciscans fanned out across the city for Witter Coin’s third annual scavenger hunt, then converged at Corona Heights Park, where Alexxa Morgan claimed the $25,000 coin that served as the top prize.

The hunt hid 10 rare coins worth more than $50,000 in all, turning familiar landmarks and neighborhood streets into checkpoints in a citywide search. Clues began dropping on Instagram at 7 a.m., delivered by AI-generated figures reading poems, a blend of old-fashioned treasure hunt and modern social-media spectacle that fit San Francisco’s taste for both lore and novelty.

Witter Coin owner Seth Chandler said the company spent months planning the themes, hiding places and the coins themselves. He called it "It's just fun." Chandler said the event was meant as a nod to the California Gold Rush, and he had expected it to draw thousands based on previous years.

The winning coin carried a history that stretched far deeper than the day’s frenzy. It was a privately minted 1851 Augustus Humbert $50 gold piece, an octagonal territorial coin tied to San Francisco’s earliest money-making years. Before Congress approved the San Francisco Mint in 1852, California’s delegates passed a bill in 1850 establishing the U.S. Assay Office to test and mint gold in San Francisco, and Augustus Humbert was appointed U.S. Assayer.

That backstory is part of why the hunt resonated so strongly in this city. The prize was not just expensive; it was the kind of object that connects the present-day city to the Gold Rush economy that helped shape it.

Witter Coin itself is rooted in that history. The business says it has been selling rare coins since 1960, and company and industry histories identify Dean Witter as its founder in San Francisco. A Coinage Magazine profile says the shop has been at the Hobart Building since 1982, near Bush and Kearny Streets, giving the company a fixed downtown base even as its scavenger hunt sent players across San Francisco.

The route helped explain the appeal. Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge and Corona Heights Park are all landmarks residents know well, but the hunt gave them a new role as stops in a search for gold. In a city that still responds to street-level adventure, neighborhood pride and a little historical theater, the event showed how a local business can turn San Francisco’s own map into the prize.