I was joking around in discord the other day and wanted to post a funny picture of a gold Twinkie so I did a quick search for a picture. Well, what I found was funny and interesting and produced more questions then answers, of course.
Questions like; Is this for real? Is it pure (.999) gold? Who won this bar? Does the winner still have it? And the biggest question in my mind, WHY!? Why would someone make a gold bar that looks like a turd? I mean that is the most unappealing shape for gold I can think of, but that's just me so let's dive in and see if we can solve this mystery.
Back in 1981 Hostess Twinkies held a contest with the grand prize being a solid gold Twinkie cake :D
After digging up that gem I then found this scan of an game card with the official rules on the back.
AMAZING!! Now we are getting somewhere!
Let's take a look at the price of gold in 1981 for some context.
It looks like we opened the year with gold at around $630/oz and closed 1981 at about $410/oz (oof).
So how much would a "$50,000 solid gold Twinkie cake" have to weigh to be worth that $50k, 40 years ago? Well, let's make the math easy and say $500/oz is the average for the year. That would make this solid gold cake about 100 ounces!
Searching online for a 100 ounce gold bar for sale I could only find one available on a Canadian website selling for CA$223,606, which adjusts to just over $180,000 US dollars!
Now this brings up the question of the purity of the gold. Was it .999 fine gold? We don't know but I would have to assume so just by looking at the value of the cake. If it was a mix of gold and other metals it would have to be huge to be worth $50,000 in 1981.
Now, let's look closer at the rules from the back of the game card. Here is a look at a breakdown of the prizes.
There are a couple things of note here, first it seems there were 24 million tickets printed as the top prize has odds of 24 million to 1 :)
Next, there were 50, 1 oz gold Twinkie cake ingots available as prizes as well. Again we don't know the purity but if they were .999 then they were worth about $500 each at the time.
Lastly, they gave away 5 GOLD (color) CADILLACS!!!
I've searched as many different keywords and phrases I could think of to find more info on the winner of this unreal prize (or any winners from this contest) but have found nothing more than this post on hostessrecipes.com.
#nothelpful
Then I looked closer at the rules and noticed this little line of text...
...which makes me feel the winner of this prize probably opted for the $50,000 in cash, in which case the ingot would not have even been produced. I am holding out hope that there is an actual 1981 vintage, 100 ounce .999 fine gold Twinkie cake out there somewhere.
But until that can be proven I guess I'll just watch thousands of real Twinkies roll by on a conveyor belt.
:D
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Thanks again @summertooth. Didn't Willy Wonka win it.
Maybe that's how he got the capitol to start his business :)
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Ok, i remember this contest. I hated Twinkie's they are gross. There was never a winner claimed from what I recall. That doesn’t mean i am right, but I remember the guy at my LCS buying Twinkie’s and giving them out to all the kids that bought something from his store. Some jackass probably had the winning ticket and never even checked.🤣🤣🤣
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Holy shit you do!? That's crazy. Fucking LCS guy buying boxes and boxes to try and win is hilarious. I would bet $50,000 that the winner took the cash instead of the gold.
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Yep I was buying coins then. I honestly don’t think the winner claimed it.
Lol Yes, watching 1000's a gold colored Twinkies roll by on a conveyer belt is a very good consolation prize. Ha! Pretty sure one single minted 100oz Twinkie bar would probably sell for much, much more than the $120k meltdown value it has today. I gotta imagine there'd be some portly collector out there with a sweet tooth and too much money that would willingly part with much more than that to proudly display it next to his silver sardines and platinum porcini mushrooms. Just a guess though... (Sorry, I googled gray foods and that's the best I could come up with) :-)
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Baaahahaha, PERFECT! I can see that guy too and we both know he would lick that golden Twinkie every night.
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Well......unless you are precious metals minded, you probably would have traded it for the cash equivalent. Similar to the videos I've seen of a guy on street corner with a Snicker's bar and a 1 oz. silver round. He offers the person their choice of which ever one they want. 9 times out of 10, they take the candy bar! That still amazes me.
I suspect that your golden twinkie never twinkled! I have to agree with you, that it's an unlikely shape for such a gold piece, but not only would it have been kind of maybe gross, just imagine the value that same 'turd' of a twinkie would have today! The winner certainly lost on that!
Thanks for sharing @summertooth and for your diligent research as well!
It amazes me to EB! The value of that Twinkie today would be astounding indeed. You'd probably have enough $$ to hire someone to hike for you while you sip another cup.
:o
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LOL! What a plan!😂😁😁☕️☕️☕️
Ahh...The "Gold" old days @summertooth ... It brings to mind Krugerrand's on gold chains.
"Liz do we have any Twinkies...this one is as hard as a rock!😇"
Haahahahah! Maybe dip it in some coffee to soften it up @silvertop! That is, if you can find a cup somewhere.
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Lol...🤣
You just reminded me I need another cup!!😀
Hmmm. I never heard of it!
Yeah, I was 10 in 1981 and had no idea this was a contest. I did eat Twinkies though ;)
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According to the National Enquirer rag, a 5 thousand year old Twinkie was rumored to be found in King Tut's sarcophagus. How it got there we don't know but Twinkies sure have a long shelf life.
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Thanks for clearing that up KLR
XD
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While waiting at the grocers I often fill my idle Check Out time by a little reading.
Looks good and I'm hungry
Haahaha! I am definitely buying a box of Twinkies today.
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