On October 10th of last year, licensed metal detectorist Florian Bautsch struck gold on the outskirts of Lüneburg in the northern German state of Lower Saxony. Nazi gold. Scanning an area with hillocks that archaeologists suspected might be ancient burial mounds, Bautsch first found a single gold coin and then nine more in the hollow under a pine tree. He recorded the find location by GPS and notified the relevant authorities at the Lüneburg Museum .
Not much like Indiana Jones, but he found the real stuff. Get a fedora, kid.
The two-week excavation unearthed another 207 gold coins buried under that three, bringing the total up to 217. The oldest coin dates to 1831, the newest to 1910, and none of them were minted in Germany. The majority — 128 coins — are Belgian. Another 74 coins were minted in France, 12 in Italy and the last three in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The working theory right now is that the gold coins, likely looted by Nazis from occupied territories before being grouped by exact size and weight, bagged and sealed, were stolen in the waning days of the Second World War. If so, it was almost certainly an inside job, a theft by a bank employee looking for some financial security in the most insecure of times.
If I'd found them I would not have gone public and paid the taxes on them. But that's me and I'm like that.
ReplyDeleteIn the first sentence of your post.. " licensed metal detectorist". SO you need a "license"
ReplyDeleteto go exploring? Every time I turn around I am hearing you need a license or permit to do something
in this country. I guess Germany is a bit ahead of us!
I have heard that many things are verboten in Germany ;0)
In Germany, if it isn't specifically allowed by law, it is verboten. Or so I've heard.
DeleteI want a bar with the Nazi eagle on it, silver or gold .. I have a fake one, I collect stuff from WWII, but would love the real thing......
ReplyDelete