Hikers in the Czech Republic discovered a cache of gold that experts said amounted to more than a quarter million dollars.
Walking in the Podkrkonosí Mountains, the hikers noticed an aluminum can protruding from the ground and an iron box about a yard away from it, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Tuesday.
When the hikers saw what the containers held, they visited an expert at the Museum of East Bohemia.
“When he opened it, my jaw dropped,” Miroslav Novak, the museum’s head of archaeology, said in reaction to the find.
Whoa, what a find! Hikers in the Czech Republic uncovered a $340K stash of gold coins & jewelry near Zvičina Hill! Hidden since WWII, this treasure’s now at the Museum of East Bohemia. Keep hunting, folks! pic.twitter.com/oie6TkDoRI
— @_Treasure_Kings_ (@_Treasure_Kings) April 30, 2025
“The can contained 598 coins, divided into 11 columns, each wrapped in black cloth,” Novak said. “The metal box contained a total of sixteen snuff boxes, ten bracelets, a wire bag, a comb, a chain, and a powder compact. All made of yellow metal.”
The hoard weighed more than 15 pounds.
“For certain the coins are solid gold. We will need to analyse the rest,” Novak added.
If you had to pay 90 percent of a treasure to the government, would you report the find?
The find was worth 7.5 million [Czech] Crowns, according to Novak, which is about $340,000.
“The historical value of the treasure, however, is incalculable,” Novak added.
The hikers discovered the gold in February, but only recently did museum officials make the announcement public.
Museum conservationists are cataloging the coins and trinkets for future display, according to Popular Science.
While the discovery was a huge gain for the Czech Republic, the hikers were only entitled to 10 percent of the total value of the find.
The question remains, however, how the treasure trove ended up where it did.
“It is difficult to say whether this is the gold of a Czech who had to leave the occupied territory after the Nazi invasion of 1938, the gold of a German who feared displacement after 1945, or Jewish gold,” museum Director Petr Grulich said.
“It could also be stolen goods from an antique shop, but we are not inclined to this option,” he added.
Vojtěch Brádle, a numismatist, said the coins may have been in the ground even before WWII.
“The treasure was hidden in the ground for a maximum of slightly over a hundred years,” Brádle said. “According to the dates stamped, it contains coins from 1808 to 1915.”
The coins hailed from a number of different countries, including Serbia, France, Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Italy, and Russia, according to Popular Science.
“So we know that the coins were in Serbia sometime in the 1920s and 1930s, but we have no idea how and when they got to eastern Bohemia,” Brádle said.
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