Hey @NashRivers and @CaptainCrow, you’ve hit on the most confusing part of the treasure boxes! The reason for those strange payouts is a hidden multiplier system.
Every single treasure box, regardless of color, has a final multiplier of between 0.5x and 10x applied to the reward. This means you could get half the expected prize or up to ten times the prize, but that 10x bonus has a ceiling. From what I’ve seen, the absolute maximum you can get from a single prize is 10,000 gems, 20,000 party passes, 250M Coins, or a top-tier charm like a Mystic Ruby or Luckiest 7 - you can’t get anything larger than that.
This randomness is exactly why your quick 23-minute box paid out more than the 4-hour one - the small box likely got a high multiplier, while the big one got an unlucky low one.
This system is also why you might see a Golden Apple or Green Star Jar from a maxed-out city; a top-tier reward like a Mystic Ruby can get hit with a low multiplier and become a lesser prize. Since the Golden Apple and Green Star Jar are worth about half of the Mystic Rubies and Luckiest 7s, this seems to be a direct result of that 0.5x multiplier kicking in.
There’s also a second multiplier just for green prizes (gems, party passes and most likely charms too). I have a hunch that it’s not a full range, but rather only two possible outcomes: a standard 1x payout or a tripled 3x one. This would explain why two identical post-HMP buildings can give different prizes, like 100 gems from one and 300 from the other. It all adds another layer of randomness to the rewards.
Each of these multipliers has a specific chance of occurring, but I haven’t had a chance to look into the details of those probabilities yet.