Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory Science Newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more.
(CNN) – The items are all part of a precious and somewhat mystical stash that was accidentally discovered by two hikers in the northeastern Czech Republic: 10 gold bracelets, 17 cigar cases, powder compacts, combs, and a whopping 598 gold coins.
Hikers who wanted to remain anonymous were approaching as they saw aluminum boxes protruding from the stone walls through the forests of Mount Kurkonos (a popular hiking spot).
According to Miloslav Novak, the museum’s archaeology dean, they opened it and discovered the loot, then took it shortly to the East Bohemia Museum in the nearby town of Fradek Krarove.
“The Finder came to the museum’s naughty troops (coin experts) without prior appointment. So archaeologists began to deal with the discoveries and set out to explore the site,” Novak told CNN via email.
Who hid the treasure and why it is debated, but one thing is certain. One of the coins is a date of 1921, so it cannot be done more than a century ago.
“It is likely to be related to the turbulent period before the start of World War II until 1945, when the Czech and Jewish population left the border area or the Germans left,” Novak said.
According to Vojtěch Brádle, a museum expert, a full historical assessment of the stash is still ongoing, with the two cigar cases tightly closed, with metal values of gold coins alone (3.7 kilograms) of Czech Koruna, or about $360,000.
The discovery has sparked interest in the surrounding community, and Novak says the museum is receiving calls with “various local rumors.”
Oddly, the fact that there are no local coins in the mix encourages speculation. “Half of it is from the Balkans, the other half of French origin,” Novak said. “Central European coins such as German coins are completely missing. However, this discovery lies on the old ethnic border between the Czechs and the German population.”
In a theory submitted by the public, Novak traces the ownership of the coin to wealthy families in the surrounding area. For example, the Swales Spork family, a large Baroque complex overlooking the Elbe River, including summer residences, spas and the Monterey. Another suggests that cash could be the plunder of the Czechoslovak legions’ war.
Such findings are not particularly common in the region, Novak noted.
“A storage of 2,700 silver denari (a type of European trade coin) from the 12th century, about nine kilometers southeast, was discovered 10 years ago,” he said in an email. “There are many abandoned farms here, as many residents left the area in the 20th century.”
VojtěChBrádle agreed that stash makeup was unusual.
“Usually, the Czech Republic has discovered that since the 20th century it mainly contains German and Czechoslovak coins. There’s not one here,” he said. “Most of this treasure did not move directly to Bohemia. They must have been somewhere on the Balkans after World War I. Some of the coins have countermarks from the former Yugoslavia.
He added that further research is needed to understand the metal composition of the remaining items and obtain more accurate overall value.
It is important that the latest coins in the stash have been around since 1921, according to Mary Heyman, a professor of modern history at Cardiff University in England and an expert on Czechoslovak history. It was the year when the Soviet-Polish war ended when the Treaty of Riga was signed, but it was also the year of the financial crisis in Czechoslovakia, the previous state that peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
“It was a period of instability, and there was a recession and widespread unemployment in the economy, so it’s not surprising that someone would consider filling their money stash at the time,” she added.
Despite Novak’s suggestion, Stash likely remained around 1945, and Highman thinks that if that’s the case, the recent coins are probably in the mix. But there’s no local currency, so things become even more troubling.
“The person who hid the coins could have been a collector, or someone who worked in a museum, or someone who stole the collection from somewhere. This is the territory of the border area, separating today’s Czech Republic (of the past Czechoslovakians) from Poland,” Heyman said. “World War I didn’t finish in one night, the effects were still felt everywhere. There was still border instability, there was still economic crisis, there was quite a lot of crime. We might expect to see particularly high tensions in these border areas and mixed ethnic places.
Once items are subjected to more important analysis, they are preserved and stored in the museum’s coin collection. A short exhibition is planned in the fall.
And who can keep the booty? According to Czech law, Novak said archaeological discoveries are property of the local government from the moment of discovery.
“In this case, the treasure was handed over to the museum correctly,” he said. “Viewfinders are entitled to financial compensation that depends on the value of metal or historical valuations.”