A northern California couple who found $10 million in rare coins buried in their backyard may not get to see any of that money—there's evidence the coins were stolen during a turn-of-the-century heist, which would mean they belong to the government.

It's not every day you get an email from a former director of the U.S. Mint (unless you're married to one, probably) — but it's also not every day that you write about the very real possibility that the U.S. Treasury might mint a platinum coin worth one trillion dollars. Either way, it was an excellent surprise to hear from Philip Diehl, the former Mint director and Treasury chief of staff who drafted Sec. 5112 of title 31, United States Code with Rep. Mike Castle — in other words, the guy who wrote the "trillion-dollar coin" law. His take? Not only does the law clearly allow for the coin to be minted, it also would have "no negative macroeconomic effects."

Congratulations to entrepreneur Aaron Patzer, pictured above with an oversized novelty check. His financial-services startup Mint was the big winner in this week's TechCrunch40 conference, bringing home the $50,000 prize for being the "best in show." So, what was the overall view of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis's big event? This take, sent to us late last night from an out-of-town journalist, explains it better than we could.