While wandering through a Polish forest, a father-son duo discovered 17 rare historical coins. Found near the village of Pomiechówek, located north of Warsaw in the Mazovia region, the cache is worth more than $120,000.

Earlier this month, metal detectors from the Triglav Historical and Research Association and the Polish Association of Treasure Hunters “Husaria” were searching for the remains of a Roman road.

The team never found the road, as told by a spokesperson for the latter group, which led the search. McClatchyThis is Irene Wright. However, two treasure hunters, Sławomir Milewski and his son Szymon, came across something else.

As Piotr Duda, archaeologist from the Triglav association, tells us, Science in Polandmetal detectors immediately recognized their findings as silver coins. Upon closer inspection, they were stunned by the obvious historical significance of the artifacts.

“At first there was a lot of noise, because everyone who was participating in the search – and there were a dozen of us – came running to the finders’ call,” says Mateusz Sygacz, of the Polish Association of Treasure Hunters. Everything that is interestingThis is Kaleena Fraga. “We all realized we had discovered something incredible.”

Dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, the collection includes two types of coins: thalers And patagons. Thalers are large silver coins that have been used throughout Europe for centuries; the word “dollar» is derived from “thaler”. Meanwhile, the patagon is also a large silver coin, but it was minted in Spanish Netherlands—provinces held by Spain, including modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Many pieces are marked with the faces of European leaders. One is a thaler from 1630 representing Sigismund III Vasaformerly king of Poland and Sweden, with the initials of the coin maker, according to a Facebook message from the Polish Association of Treasure Hunters. Another, a 1623 thaler, was minted for only two years, making it a very rare find. Most coins were made during the Thirty Years’ War—a brutal period of conflict, famine, and disease that ravaged Europe between 1618 and 1648.

According to another message Thanks to the association, the oldest coin in the cache was made between 1564 and 1587, while the most recent dates from 1641. The discoverers wonder how such a varied collection ended up near Pomiechówek.

“We suspect that one of the soldiers lost his pay,” Sygacz said. Everything that is interesting. “Another hypothesis is that the burial was made by a merchant who wanted to hide his goods from potential thieves. There was an inn about a kilometer away (during) the 16th century, and we know from earlier discoveries similar deposits, that it was a It is common to hide valuables before visiting an inn.

The treasure hunters handed over their coin collection to the local official curator of monuments. The authorities hope that the collection will then find a place in a museum.