A Construction Crew Was Demolishing a House—And Uncovered a $10 Million Gold Hoard

3 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Found by a team of construction workers renovating an old house, a stash of gold coins and ingots thought to be worth almost $10.5 million is now being investigated. The reason the coins were concealed remains a mystery for now, as does their archaeological and historical value.The local prosecutor has launched an investigation to find out whether illegal activity was involved, but none has been discovered so far.The last thing construction workers expected to find while they were renovating a building in Belgium was astash of goldhidden within its walls. The team discovered a chest that had been built into the cellar wall, filled with over 40 gold bars and 4,000 gold coins with no obvious origin or age. What little is known about the property hardly gives away any historical information. Once a brewer’s home around the turn of the 20th century, the structure now houses social welfare organization CAW Oost-Vlaanderen—but so far, nothing about the building or the gold itself explains who hid it, or whether the former owner even knew it was there.“We stumbled across it while carrying out groundwork to lay a pipe for the sewerage system," one worker from the construction crew, identified only as Kobe,toldBelgian news outlet VRT. “We certainly hadn’t expected to find gold.”After they spotted a gold nugget, the workers realized they couldn’t keep the discovery to themselves. So, they contacted local police, who said in a recentFacebook postthat the gold was “inventoried and secured as quickly as possible in a high-security vault belonging to the federal government services.”What the workers initially thought were €1 coins sitting alongside stacks ofgold ingotsturned out to be worth an estimated €9 million (almost $10.5 million USD). Police are now asking the public to keep away from the active construction site, which has been fenced off, though some attempts to break in have already been made. No further riches have been found during the ongoing renovation and demolition work.The coins are still being studied to determine what their markings and other details could mean about their historical context, and in the meantime, the hoard’s historical and archaeological significance remains unknown. But chances are, thecoinsand gold bars were hidden for an interesting reason. Historically, hoards have been concealed for almost as many motives as there are coins. For example, wars, economic crises, and political upheavals often force people to stash their valuables where they can’t be stolen or confiscated by authorities working for corrupt leaders.Further investigation will hopefully determine the age of the coins and where they were minted, but if the coins turn out to be modern, it’s possible that illegal activity was involved in the stashing of such amassive hoard. Someone might have thought an old house where a charity operates would be a hiding place no one would expect.If the coins are from further back in time, though, the most recent ones could help determine when the hoard was accumulated. If the hoard’s rightful owners are out there somewhere, Belgian law gives them five years to claim their possessions, so long as there was no associatedcriminal activity.An investigation has already been launched by the prosecutor, no evidence of anything illegal has been found.If no one comes forward and it’s confirmed that there’s no evidence of criminal activity, half of thetreasureis supposed to be handed over to the owner of the property (CAW Oost-Vlaanderen), and the other half will go to the builders who found it. The CAW Oost-Vlaanderen charity helps about 45,000 people in the region, and while the organization is hoping that they’ll be able to use the money for those in need, there are still 1,823 days to go before they find out.Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.