Gaby
Czech authorities announced that hikers in the Krkonoše Mountains made an extraordinary discovery. A group of tourists stumbled on a 15-pound hoard that included 598 gold coins, a silver wallet, and gold items such as bracelets and cigarette cases. Realizing the significance of their find, the tourists reported it to the authorities and handed the treasure over to the East Bohemian Museum in Hradec Králové.
“This is one of the most unusual discoveries in modern Czech history. When I saw the contents of the box, my jaw dropped. Without a doubt, the coins are made of pure gold,” said Miroslav Novak, head of the museum’s archaeology department. The expert estimated the treasure to be worth approximately 7.5 million Czech crowns, or more than $330,000.
What else is known about the find?
The Jerusalem Post reported the treasure was buried in two containers on the southwestern slope of a hill. Among the items discovered were 598 gold coins wrapped in black fabric, a silver wallet, 10 bracelets, 16 cigarette cases, a key on a chain, and a powder compact. Most of the artifacts are made of gold.
The treasure appears to have been buried more than a century ago. The coins date from 1808 to 1915, numismatist Vojtěch Bradle said. He added that the hoard belongs to the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, specifically during the reign of Franz Joseph I, the husband of Empress Sisi.
Most of the coins originated in France; the rest were minted in Austria-Hungary, Belgium, and the Ottoman Empire. But there were no coins from Germany or Czechoslovakia in the cache, which raises questions about who buried the treasure and why. Several coins bore smaller countermarks, likely added after World War I. Bradle also said some of the coins turned up in Serbia between 1920 and 1930, but it remains unclear how and when they made their way to East Bohemia.
Experts say the treasure is significant not just because of its weight but because of its historical context, which gives it great value. Researchers are trying to determine why someone buried the hoard on that hillside. One theory suggests it was hidden after Nazi Germany annexed the Sudetenland around 1938, when many Jews and Czechs moved further into the country to escape persecution. Another hypothesis is that the hoard belonged to Germans expelled by Stalinist communists at the end of the war.
“The treasure could have belonged to a Jewish family, a displaced Czech, or a German. There’s also a possibility that it was stolen from an antiquities dealer, but that version is weak,” said museum director Petr Grulich.
Grulich explained that the practice of burying valuables goes back to prehistoric times. Novak added, ‘Initially it was done for ritual reasons; later it served to protect wealth during turbulent times.’ People who buried valuables hoped to return and reclaim them later. But that did not always happen.
