A broken earthenware mug, known as a candyushka, sat undisturbed beneath a house floor in Torzhok for over a century. Inside it: 409 gold imperial Russian coins, minted between 1848 and 1911.
Construction crews working on new development in the northwestern Russian city prompted researchers to excavate the site in early 2025. Torzhok sits roughly 260 miles southeast of St. Petersburg. Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum were called in to document the foundations of a historic house before the old structure gave way to something new. What they found in a pit beneath the floor changed the scope of the project entirely.
The breakdown of the hoard is specific. There were 387 gold 10-ruble coins, 10 coins worth 5 rubles each, 10 coins worth 15 rubles each, and 2 coins valued at 7.5 rubles. Combined, the collection totals 4,085 rubles. Two coins date to the reigns of Czar Nicholas I and Alexander III. The overwhelming majority, however, bear the face of Czar Nicholas II — the last Russian emperor, deposed by revolution in 1917 and executed with his family in 1918.
A Fortune Buried Before the Revolution
Experts believe the hoard was concealed during or shortly after the revolution began, according to the announcement. Whoever buried it expected to return. They never did.
Archival records indicate that 24 families lived in the area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but researchers cannot determine which household the coins belonged to. Historic and modern house numbers no longer correspond, making attribution impossible.
The financial stakes are layered. In 1916, the exchange rate sat at 6.7 rubles per U.S. dollar, placing the hoard’s contemporary value at roughly $610 — a figure that, adjusted for inflation, converts to over $18,000 today. That calculation alone marks the savings as significant by the standards of the time. But the melt value tells a different story. Each 10-ruble coin is 90% gold, and at current gold prices, a single coin carries a melt value of nearly $1,300. The full collection, by that measure, may be worth well over $500,000.
Where the Coins Go Next
The Torzhok hoard will be transferred to the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum, the announcement states. The coins will leave the pit where someone once staked their financial survival — and enter a permanent institutional collection, their original owner still unknown.
Photo by Олег Мороз on Unsplash
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