Emily Chan
After reading about this, you’ll probably be tempted to wander around with a metal detector. A man from Kentucky discovered more than 700 gold coins while digging in his cornfield.
His identity and location will remain anonymous.
The coins date back to the Civil War era and are estimated to be worth over a million dollars. The collection includes one-dollar, ten-dollar, and twenty-dollar pieces.
The Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) determined them to be real and genuine coins that were minted before and during the Civil War.
And what’s more, they were in excellent condition. Gold dollars made up 95 percent of the hoard, and a small number of silver coins made up the rest.
The coins were put up for sale on a coin dealer website called GovMint.com. One coin can go for six figures at auction.
The rarest coin among the entire stash happened to be the twenty-dollar gold Liberty coin. They were minted in 1863, and a whopping 18 of them were found.
Items buried during the Civil War have always been of interest to both coin collectors and historians alike. The coin collection, which has now been deemed The Great Kentucky Hoard, can tell experts a lot about American history.
A conflict archaeologist at Georgia Southern University named Ryan McNutt claimed it was possible that the coins were buried in advance of a Confederate raid in the summer of 1863.
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