The Hoard
A magpie fills a swimming pool with gold and never spends a coin. You can own the pool.
Scroll DownFourteen paintings, twenty-five of each, then the pool closes
The Vault
01 Depth 1.6 mThe vault, specified
Magnus Pye keeps his gold where a town once kept its swimming: a round municipal lido, 25 metres across, drained one dry summer and never refilled. Nine tiers of steps go down into it all the way round. He filled it to the coping, and every figure below is worked out from the pool and the coin.
| Diameter | 25 m |
|---|---|
| Depth, shallow to deep | 1.6 to 2.4 m |
| Steps down, all the way round | 9 tiers |
| Volume to the coping | 982 m³ |
| Coin | 38 × 3 mm |
| Mass of one coin | 65.7 g |
| Packing, coin to air | 64 % |
| Coins | 184,672,206 |
| Weight | 12,139 tonnes |
| Coins spent | 0 |
The Dives
02 Depth 1.8 mFourteen paintings, one pool
A year in the life of the hoard, from the first dive to the tailor's window he will not go into. Each painting is printed as a giclée print on canvas, in an edition of twenty-five across every size, and numbered when it sells.
The vault from above. Press a + to see what happens there.
+
First thing, before the counting, Magnus goes in head first. The nightcap stays on.
The Morning Dive+
Seen from the lifeguard's side: breaststroke through the gold, along the lane line, a wake of coin behind him.
Lengths+
Dawn, the floodlights still on and a candle he will not blow out. Every coin into the ledger; he has never once reached the end.
Counting House+
One coin, one cloth, all afternoon. The shine throws a disc of light back onto his breast.
Polishing+
He keeps watch over the gold as if it might drown. Nobody has ever seen it try.
The Lifeguard Chair+
One coin, newly arrived, held up to the light. For a moment he looks at money the way it looks at him.
Interest+
Three crows in bowler hats check the count from the coping. He floats below, one wing over the pile.
The Auditors+
The richest bird in the parish sits on the top step and mends his own gown. The patch does not match, and he will not buy one that does.
DarningNine tiers · lane line north to south · coping 25 m across
The Coin
03 Depth 2.1 m
Your Coin in the Hoard
Your initials and a year, struck in gold and set into Interest, the painting where Magnus holds one coin up to the light. It stays his coin, and it carries your mark.
One to three letters, an ampersand if there are two of you, and any year from 1800 to now. It is numbered outside the twenty-five, so the edition stays twenty-five. The edition price plus $600.
The Ledger
04 Depth 2.4 mEvery number, in public
Every edition sold is entered in the ledger: the piece, its number out of twenty-five, the size and the date. Never a name. A collector can see how many of a painting are left before deciding.