Hikers find boxes under rocks in Czechia — and discover century-old treasures

Miami Herald

01-05-2025

In the foothills of the Krkonoše Mountains of the Czech Republic, two hikers worked their way across the southwest slopes of Zvičina Hill.
It was February, and their hike led them to the edge of an overgrown field, now with tall grass and trees. Then they noticed a man-made stone embankment.
Tucked under the stones was an aluminum can — with contents worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The can was filled with gold coins, according to an April 25 Facebook post from The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, and just part of a massive collection of treasures from the past century found stashed in the rocks.
The coins were arranged in 11 stacks and were wrapped in a black fabric, archaeologists said after the treasures were turned over to the museum.
There were a total of 598 coins, valued at about 7.5 million Czech koruna, or roughly $340,000, according to Radio Prague International.
Just a few feet away from the aluminum can, the hikers found 16 metal snuffboxes, 10 bracelets, a fine wire mesh purse, a comb, a chain and key and a compact case, according to the museum.
The coins date between 1808 and 1915, but some of the coins have small countermarks that were typically added after World War I, the museum said. They were stamped in the former Yugoslavia in the 1920s and 1930s, meaning the treasure was likely stashed after that period.
'The list of potential reasons for which it was likely buried is fairly clear. It was the beginning of the war, the deportation of the Czech and Jewish populations, then the deportation of the Germans after the war, so there are several possibilities. There was also a monetary reform, which could have also been a reason,' Miroslav Novák, head of archaeology at the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, told Radio Prague International.
Archaeologists believe the treasure was stashed with the intention of the hider coming back for their goods, but why they never returned will remain a mystery, according to the outlet.
The coins, at least, were likely stashed not for their monetary value as currency, but because of their monetary value as precious metals, the museum said.
Numismatists, or coin experts, saw coins in the collection came from France, Turkey, Belgium, Austro-Hungary, and even coins from the Ottoman Empire, according to the museum.
The small marks on the coins show that they were not intended to remain in Czechia, but were instead meant for the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, museum numismatist Vojtěch Brádle told Radio Prague International.
'Sometime after 1921, they must have been restamped in local mints, and only later, under unknown circumstances, did they make their way from former Yugoslavia to our country,' Brádle told the outlet. 'What is certain, though, is that in 1921, at least part of these coins couldn't have been on our territory. They must have still been in the Balkans at the time.'
The total treasure weighed nearly 15 pounds, but the other artifacts beside the coins are still being studied, the museum said.
The treasure was found near the town of Trutnov, in the northern region of Czechia, or the Czech Republic, just south of Poland's southern border.
Chat GPT, an AI chat bot, was used to translate the Facebook post from the The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové.