So, the folks at Gothamist got an interesting email (and video) today. According to the anonymous letter, there is $10,000 in cash (US Mint $1 coins, to be exact) buried somewhere in NYC right this second. Details are inside.

Here's the video they received, which explains the "modern day treasure hunt" and notes that "clues" will begin to show up on this web site August 1st.

And here's more information on the mysterious contest:

The sender of this email told us this was for a new independently-produced puppet web video series that's launching... but this sort of reeks of corporate viral marketing, no? Either way, there really is $10K buried out there somewhere in the five boroughs-and if you find it, it's yours. According to the below video, clues will start on August 1st, and there will be 8 weekly videos released.

There's a website set up, called We Lost Our Gold, which reiterates this is in no way a contest or promotion. We want to believe, but because viral marketing has made us so jaded, we're not totally accepting that this won't end with the finder of the loot becoming a PR puppet owned by some evil corporate overlord. Dig at your own risk...

Obviously, this reeks of a viral marketing campaign. But really, who cares? There's money to be found out there!

[Gothamist]