Which would you choose and would you do so because you thought it was worth the most? [See details]?

I’d go for the gold (particularly at today’s prices). Those hard asset classes are hard to beat.

Although the diamonds are also a hard asset class, there is so much variability in the quality and I suspect diamonds might be harder to liquidate than gold (even 6 pints of diamonds). Forget the paper money.

I’d go for the gold.

I’d take the gold for the same reasons @Kayak8 stated – so my reason would be for worth. However, I’d love to roll around in that much paper money just for the heck of it.

If you are going for the monetary value, you could take the cash and purchase more gold than you describe in the mailbox. With the diamonds; carat, cut, clarity and color would dictate their value. A ten gallon hat holds about three quarts. So, there would be diamonds ranging in size from a quarter carat to three carats in a three quart container? A three carat typically goes for approxiamately $15,000 and up to about $35,000. I’d take my chances with the cash.

Cash, because I’m lazy. I don’t want to bother converting the other assets into usable currency.

I’d take the cash. The diamonds might be worth more, but I like that I would know exactly how much I had, and I am not greedy to the point that I would want $50 million rather than just $30 million.

With only 90 seconds to choose, I would go for the money thinking I could buy gold and diamonds as I see fit.

I’d go with the cash because I’d be worried the gold was fake and the diamonds weren’t real or a good quality. I suppose the money could be fake too though, but I’d still take my chances with it and then invest it.

I’d take the cash because I have very little knowledge on the value of any given amount of gold or diamonds, so I couldn’t possibly figure out which one was worth the most…but I know a van full of cash is a lot of money, and like @augustlan said, I won’t have to convert it.

The dollar is headed for the pits, diamonds are difficult to assess and to move, so it would be the gold.

I’d spend 60 secs trying to decide between the cash and the gold…I’d have thrown out the diamond option. I’d be thinking about my bills and what I’d do with the money and I’d choose the cash.

Yes, it’s the instant gratification choice…but it would most likely pay for all of my bills and allow me to have some liquid cash on hand, besides.

The diamonds.

I like the thrill of discovery. It’d be fun to sort through the Stetson hat to see what I got.

I also like a good story. I’d mount these on some jewelry and start a Mystery Bowler jewelry line.

Any option I’d choose would be plenty anyways. This option just seems more fun.

If I have to keep any of those options then they’re not worth anything to me. Only if I can trade, sell or spend them would I choose the diamonds.

The cash. It’s easy, it’s cash! (Hopefully not singles!)

The diamonds would be most difficult to liquidate, and I don’t wanna deal with the gold if I don’t have to…

@Seaofclouds I assumed most would believe the items real but to clarify most of the diamonds are SI2 to VVS1, with most being between VS1 and VVS2 and E and G in color. The gold is real, no fake or ”fools gold”, and the cash is all Government Issue, no Monopoly money.—They are all perfectly cut in ovals, marquise, round, pear, heart, etc, with most being round, oval, and marquise.—

@AmWiser Isn’t that somewhat like swapping assets when you could have taken the diamond or the gold from the start?

@Neizvestnaya Once you choose, you can do whatever you wished with it, place diamonds on a gold tee and whack them into a canyon, flush the gold down the toilet, hand out bricks of money to everyone at the mall; it is yours to do what you see fit.

@mrrich724 The cash. It’s easy, it’s cash! (Hopefully not singles!) They are not singles, Remember they are bricks of $1,000 each. If you are quick in figuring out how wide, long, and thick a brick of $1,000 in $100 dollar bills are you can calculate how many might possibly fit in the back of a van wall to wall, ceiling to floor.

Oh, I thought the total of the brick was 1000, not composed of 1000 bills! Yea, I’d definitely take the cash. For convenience sake at the very least…. now tell us!!! Who’d come out ahead?!

@mrrich724 Oh, I thought the total of the brick was 1000, not composed of 1000 bills! The bricks of cash are valued at $1,000, I still think you would come out slightly ahead. Even at the price of gold of gold per ounce 96 ounces is a lot but not nearly as much as it appears. The diamonds could be worth quite a bit, you find FL, D colored diamond at 3 carets could be upper 300k or lower 400k easy. How many of them could be in that mailbox? Just eight of them alone would be over 3 million. Toss in lesser stones that would or could fetch 100k there about, how many diamonds are in that mailbox. How many $1,000 bricks will fit the back of a cargo? How many square feet is that? If you figure you could put half a million in a Halliburton, how many of those could fit the back of the cargo an? I say whoever took the cash or the stones would be ahead of the usual favorite of gold.

So the diamonds are not flawless? What are the carat size of the diamonds? Do they just vary from .25 to 3 carat and we don’t know even what percent of the larger stones are in the hat? Hmm, I don’t think that is a good choice for monetary value. Three quarts of various diamonds that are not flawless. I do love rocks though. I’d still pick the cash. Do I get to keep the van if I pick the cash?

I really took seriously your suggestion that we had 90 seconds to decide. That is not enough time (for me anyway) to calculate the volume of any of the three standard sizes of mailboxes (the little round part at the top involves pi, and . . .). Nor could I assess the size of diamonds to see how many would go in a hat and, on top of that calculate how many “bricks” of bills would fill a van of a size I would have to google to discern.

There is a whole lot of conversation here that would take longer than 90 seconds! LOL

Ok, wait. I thought it was the residential post box sets…you know, um where each community has their own stacked set of post boxes. Only the older communities, in my city, get their mail delivered at their front door.

So, yeah….definately the money in the van. Mmmmoneyyyy!!! :::rolls around in it::: Oooo yeeeaahhh!