Jewelry made of gold, artifacts of antiquity, awards of the tsarist era and treasures of old coins - all this is quite possible to find on the territory of the Ural region. Of course, most of the treasure hunters who were lucky enough to find valuable caches are in no hurry to share the good news with the public. So one can only guess about the exact number of raised treasures. In this article I will tell you about those lucky ones who happened to find valuable hiding places and who decided to transfer the finds to their rightful owner - the state.
Sapogovskie Dancing Men
The story happened in the vicinity of the village of Sapogovo, back in 1910. During the plowing of the site, located at the bottom of a dried-up lake, the peasant Govorukhin discovered two dozen bronze figurines. He sold 10 items from the collection to his friend, the peasant Kanevsky, for 100 rubles (in terms of the modern exchange rate, the transaction amount was 130,000 rubles).
Sapogovsky treasure.
The remaining eight pieces were kept, unfortunately, the peasant lost two figures. The new owner of memorable artifacts took the acquired treasure to Yekaterinburg, where one of the first Ural archaeologists, V. Ya. Tolmachev, became interested in the find. The peasant tried to sell the items of the ancient collection for 150 royal rubles. While the Imperial Archaeological Commission was deciding on the expediency of the transaction, a certain person appeared who introduced himself as a US citizen, who tried to redeem the treasure for 1,000 rubles (1,500,000 rubles in modern conversion).
Reproduction, exposition of the Chelyabinsk Regional Museum.
And then for the first time in the history of Russia, the state applied police measures aimed at the inadmissibility of the transaction. The hoard was confiscated from the peasant, and besides, it was deprived of the opportunity to receive compensation. Since then, the amazing find can be viewed in the exposition of the archeology department of the Hermitage.
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By the way, some sources claim that the same foreigner was a trusted person of the eminent English writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes).
Millions in the beds: a robber's hideout or a merchant's stash
In 1978, one of the largest treasures in the history of the region was discovered on the territory of the Sverdlovsk region. The place of discovery was the ancient village of Yushkov, Tugulym region, located 8 km north-north-east of the village of Tugulym (left tributary of the Pyshma river). Founded by Yamsky hunter Yushko Volodin back in 1600!
Scheme of the Siberian tract.
A couple of centuries ago, one of the sections of the Siberian tract passed near the village, this period was the heyday in the life of a provincial village. The constant traffic of transporting goods and people allowed the residents of the surrounding villages to earn a lot of money on the maintenance of the highway. In particular, there were several inns in the village of Yushkovka. On the territory of one of the former recreation centers, a private house has been built today.
Image of the inn.
The owner of the house decided to plow the land on the previously untouched plot. In the process of work, the plow opened an underground cavity of a rather impressive size. The pit was covered with birch bark and formed a kind of hiding place with a reserve for long-term storage. The former owner of the cache hid in an inconspicuous pit 12,000 coins with a denomination of five kopecks and a total weight of 37 pounds (fit in 20 buckets)!
The hoard consisted of coins from the Yekaterinburg, Anninsky and Kolyvansky mints. The total amount of the find extended to 600 royal rubles. The treasure was transferred to the museum. Most likely, according to historians, the treasure had a criminal history.
It was hardly possible to imagine that someone managed to accumulate such a huge amount of coins of the same denomination and year of issue. Also among the coins was found a metal tag numbered 2421. In those days, coins were transported in barrels, so it is quite possible that the tag was not among the coins by accident. It is quite possible that the robbers hid their prey in the inn, which had lain in the ground for over a hundred years!
The treasure of royal coins was hidden in the center of Krasnoufimsk
In the Krasnoufimsky district of the Sverdlovsk region, many different rarities are often found.
Panorama of old Krasnoufimsk.
Here you can find artifacts of antiquity, and the legacy of the Peasant War, weapons from the civil war, as well as many other noteworthy rarities. In the eighties of the last century, the reconstruction of the historical part of the city was carried out.
An old merchant house in Krasnoufimsk.
In the process of repair work on one of the sites, near the old merchant's mansion, workers discovered a treasure. A pot filled to the brim with gold and platinum royal rubles was walled up in the wall. The treasure weighed several kilograms and consisted of coins of different denominations, dated to the times of Alexander III, Nicholas I and Nicholas II. Unfortunately, history is silent about the further fate of such a valuable find.
It was not possible to find any reference materials about the quantity and estimated value of the treasure, as well as its further fate. Most likely, the treasure came to the disposal of the state. Coins of the Tsarist era, minted from precious metals, have an extremely high estimated value, so it is quite possible that the find from Krasnoufimsk was transferred to Gokhran. The price of this find on the black market could start from $ 10,000.
A cache on the second floor of an abandoned manor
In 2016, a treasure of several kilograms of copper coins minted in the middle of the 19th century was discovered on the second floor of the abandoned manor of the merchant Ryazanov, in the very center of the historical part of Yekaterinburg.
The old building has been in an abandoned state for many years, awaiting major repairs. Two local residents, in their own words, out of curiosity decided to get inside the mansion.
Ryazanov's estate (nowadays).
Once on the second floor of a merchant's house, one of the "curious" was lucky enough to literally step on the treasured egg-box. The treasure was hidden in a pot and hid under the flooring. The oldest coins found are dated 1869, the latest - 1916.
The denomination differs: one, two, three and five kopecks. The total weight of the treasure is about 10 kilograms, so the find is rather weighty. The treasure was transferred to the local history museum, and, moreover, free of charge. Those who found the treasure, with the permission of the museum staff, left several copper coins for themselves as souvenirs.
Author: LYUBUSHKIN Andrey