Kentucky Man Digs up Hoard of Civil War Gold Coins
A Kentucky man found a hoard of over 700 Civil War-era coins on his farm.
The coins, which have been dubbed the "Great Kentucky Hoard," could be worth millions.
A US coins expert said that the discovery "cannot be overstated."
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A Kentucky man uncovered a trove of over 700 Civil War-era coins buried on a farm.
The cache of gold coins, dubbed the "Great Kentucky Hoard," dates between 1840 and 1863, according to GovMint.com.
The coins include $1 Gold Indians, $10 Gold Libertys, and $20 Gold Libertys, while there are also a few extremely rare 1863 Gold Liberty Double Eagles, which the website notes are a date that is "scarce in all grades."
The collection of coins is now likely worth millions, according to Coinworld.com.
"This is the most insane thing ever," the man who discovered the coins said in a video shared by GovMint. "Those are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins."
"This is not fucking real," he added.
"The opportunity to handle the 'Great Kentucky Hoard' is one of the highlights of my career. The importance of this discovery cannot be overstated," Jeff Garrett, a US coins expert said, per GovMint.com.
He said that the coins were a "virtual time capsule of Civil War era coinage," adding that some came from the "elusive" Dahlonega Mint — a mint set up in Georgia that operated from 1838 to 1861 and only minted gold coins, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
"Finding one mint condition 1863 double eagle would be an important numismatic event. Finding nearly a roll of superb examples is hard to comprehend," Garrett added.
The coins have been authenticated and graded by the Numismatic Guaranty Company, a third-party coin grading service. Most were graded in extremely fine to mint state, per GovMint.com.
Ryan McNutt, a conflict archaeologist at Georgia Southern University, told Live Science that "given the time period and the location in Kentucky, which was neutral at the time, it is entirely possible this was buried in advance of Confederate John Hunt Morgan's June to July 1863 raid."
Source: Business Insider
