15 Aug 2019 Thousands of German coins under the morgue
Categories: Minting - Numismatics , Finds and rescue research in the Czech Republic , Calendar
During the reconstruction of the former mortuary in Ludgeřovice in the Opava region, workers discovered German coins from the Second World War. These were about six thousand pieces of phoenix, five-phoenix, ten-phoenix and fifty-phoenix coins.
In total, the treasure weighed tens of kilograms. Workers discovered it in the rubble of a former morgue. The coins were wrapped in paper rolls and were probably hidden at the end of the war.
"Apparently they were stored in this way by the then parish priest. Perhaps to be used to repair the church in peacetime. If anyone knows the story of the coins, we welcome their testimony," said Daniel Havlík, the local mayor at the time.
The rolls have disintegrated over time, but some of the coins still have remnants of paper on them. In his day, they were common currency, which the parish priest probably accumulated from donations from the faithful dropped into the coin box during mass.
Photo gallery here:
https://novojicinsky.denik.cz/galerie/poklad-ukryty-pod-marnici-v-ludgerovicich.html?photo=1&back=4127304625-8089-65
When the workers came across the coins, they ran straight for the mayor. The treasure was half a meter deep under the floor of the morgue. The workers noticed the coins when they were shoveling dirt into a pile in a dumpster. Later it turned out that they were mostly war coins, German pfennigs from 1940 to 1944. "There were more of us at the site then, and in the end it turned out that the children played archaeologists until 8:30 in the evening," Havllík smiled.
A few pieces of pre-war coins were also found under the floor. The local parish priest, Václav Koloničný, also spoke about the treasure.
"We found coins from around 1924. It is interesting that there are also fifties from the Protectorate. I found a penny from the First Republic and a Slovak penny from the Slovak State. So it's a mixture of about what was in the basket," Koloničný explained.
The discovery caused a stir in the village. Some locals have approached the authorities, saying they would like to buy the coins. In the future, the municipality and the parish planned to issue them as commemorative coins.
Sources: www.denik.cz, www.ahaonline.cz, www.ludgerovice.cz
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