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Archaeologists have discovered a century-old hoard of gold ruble coins underneath a house in northwestern Russia. The 409 coins were minted during the waning days of the Russian Empire and may be worth more than half a million dollars today.
In 2025, researchers with the Institute of Archaeology 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 260 miles (420 kilometers) southeast of St. Petersburg, according to a March 5 statement.
During this excavation, archaeologists noticed a pit in the foundation that contained the broken remains of a glazed earthenware mug, known as a candyushka, filled with 409 coins minted between 1848 and 1911. The hoard consisted of 387 gold 10-ruble coins, 10 coins each worth 5 rubles, 10 coins each worth 15 rubles and two 7.5-ruble coins.
Archaeologists found a broken earthenware mug full of coins during excavation of an old house foundation.
(Image credit: Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology)
While two coins were minted during the reigns of earlier czars (Nicholas I and Alexander III), the rest come from the reign of Czar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor before the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nicholas and the rest of the royal Romanov family were executed in 1918. While rumors persisted for decades that his daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, escaped execution, researchers now think that she was killed alongside her family.
Experts believe that the Torzhok hoard was hidden away during or after the start of the revolution and that the owner of the hoard intended to come back for it. Archival documents suggest that 24 families lived in this area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but experts aren't sure which family hid their savings because the historic and modern house numbers don't line up.
Archaeologists found over 380 10-ruble gold coins featuring Czar Nicholas II on the front.
(Image credit: Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology)
In total, the coins in the hoard add up to 4,085 rubles. Historic currency tables reveal that, in 1916, the exchange rate was 6.7 rubles per U.S. dollar. Given inflation, $610 in 1916 is the equivalent of over $18,000 today, suggesting the hoard was a substantial chunk of someone's savings. But the melt value of one 10-ruble coin — which is 90% gold — is nearly $1,300, which means the entire hoard may be valued at well over $500,000.
The hoard will now be transferred to the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum, according to the statement.
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Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.
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