Archaeologists have discovered a hundred-year-old collection of gold coins under a house in northwestern Russia. The 409 coins were minted during the waning days of the Russian Empire and could be worth more than half a million dollars today.
In 2025, researchers at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum excavated the foundations of a historic house ahead of new construction in the city of Torzhok, about 420 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg, according to a March 5. statement.
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While two coins were minted during the reigns of previous tsars (Nicholas I and Alexander III), the rest come from the reign of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nicholas and the rest of the Romanov royal family were executed in 1918. While rumors persisted for decades, Anastaev’s daughter, Nikolaed’s, his daughter’s execution, scholars now believe that she was killed along with her family.
Experts believe that the Torzhok treasure was hidden away during or after the start of the revolution, and that the owner of the treasure intended to return for it. Archival records indicate that 24 families lived in this area in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but experts aren’t sure which family hid their savings because the historic and modern house numbers don’t match.
In total, the coins in the magazine amount to 4,085 rubles. Historical currency tables reveal that in 1916 exchange rate was 6.7 rubles per US dollar. Granted inflation$610 in 1916 is equivalent to over $18,000 today, suggesting that the tax was a significant portion of someone’s savings. But that one melting value of a 10-ruble coin – which is 90% gold – is almost $1,300, meaning the entire hoard could be valued at well over $500,000.
The treasure will now be transferred to the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum, according to the statement.
