Where to look for coins in Belarus. From the history of treasures in Glubochina (Belarus). People die for metal

As they say, some people never had to find someone else’s button for the life of them, but for others gold was constantly raining down on them. So the residents of the small town of Glubokoye in Belarus were bombarded with finds that over the years did not allow the townspeople to sleep peacefully.

According to statistics, Belarus is one of the leading countries in the number of treasures extracted from the earth. Among the most famous finds are 7 thousand pieces of jewelry found in 1957 near the village of Degtyany, Kopyl district, Minsk region; more than 7.5 thousand dirhams of the Arab Caliphate, which were dug up in 1973 near the village of Kozianki, Polotsk district, Vitebsk region, the treasure was found during the laying of a heating main in Minsk, the excavator caught a silver candlestick, which the workers first mistook for a projectile and called sappers. The shell was not found, but 13 kilograms of silver were dug up - 547 items: coins and awards of the Russian Empire of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, as well as various decorative tableware. When laying the metro, they also found a treasure, they lifted from the ground 13 gold 5-ruble notes of the 900 standard from the time of Nicholas II, but there are so many legends about Napoleon’s treasure, and maybe it actually exists...

Gorovlyansky treasure

In 1965, near the village of Gorovlyane, Glubokoe district, the treasure was found by archaeologist, researcher at the Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR Georgy Shtykhov. The cauldron he dug up contained more than 200 silver objects, mostly Arab coins from the 10th century. In addition, the cache contained a neck hryvnia, a bracelet, a ring, and several dozen gilded necklaces. The treasure was transferred to the National Museum of Belarus.

People die for metal

In the early 80s of the 20th century, reconstruction began in the center of Glubokoye. They demolished the former children's music school - a two-story building made of good quality red brick, and the tables of a mini-market, popularly known as "Khitrushka". When underground communications were being brought to the building of a new department store, a treasure was found.

The boy Vita (today he is a law enforcement officer) was 13 years old then. His uncle Stas worked at that time in the PMK of the regional consumer union. From him the boy heard a story about an excavator operator who, having lifted a bucket of soil, saw “some yellow shiny round pieces” that looked like Soviet pennies - they rained down into the sand. Nobody knew how much of that “glitter” ended up in the worker’s pockets, because the next day he quit his job and left Glubokoye. Uncle Stas admitted to his nephew that he himself “did a good job with the shovel back then.” He dug out the bottle, sealed with wax, hid it in his bosom and hurried home. When I broke it, I saw a pack of paper “katerinki” - completely useless money at that time. And some found silver spoons and forks...

Prudently taking a construction sieve with him, schoolboy Vitya also ran to the “excavation” site. But the “gold mine” was already cordoned off by the police. And at home, having learned about this campaign, the father “treated” his son to a belt: the man knew that for illegal transactions with precious metals one could get a prison sentence.

“At that time, there was only one metal detector in all of Glubokoye that could “smell” gold, and it was located in the police department,” says another witness to those events. Who found what then is a mystery. Only everyone knew that there was a treasure and that no one handed it over to the state.

Time has passed. The rumors have died down. People calmed down. And suddenly unexpected news shook the regional center again: in the Caucasus, while trying to sell gold coins to buyers, a district police officer from Glubokoe was detained. Distance did not help him hide from justice.

— When he returned from prison, he served in the church for some time, and then left for Lithuania. They say he became a priest. Gold did not bring happiness to man,” my interlocutor finished the story.

"Golden" car

Five years later, sensational news spread around Glubokoye again: another treasure had been found. The lucky one handed it over to the state and used the legally received reward to buy a car.

— In the courtyard of the old department store, where the Alice store is now, in the 80s there were film warehouses in the basement, and even earlier there were Jewish workshops and shops in this place. One day, workers of the regional consumer union dug a trench for a water supply and did not fill it up. Projectionists were forced to carry heavy reels of films to the machine, overcoming this trench, said former director of the film and video network Anna DEVIATOVSKAYA. “I sent my employee Viktor Pobedinsky to bury it.” He reluctantly took the shovel and went. I dug several times and right near the corner of the warehouse I found a glass coffee jar with gold coins. Apparently, the owner once hid the money he earned for a “rainy day.” Victor handed over the treasure and received the 25% he was entitled to - about 29 thousand Soviet rubles. Then there were no cars on sale, so he went to Polotsk and bought a used orange Moskvich. He said that he still had life left.

We don't need someone else's

On October 5 last year, a team of housing and communal services workers carried out excavation work in Glubokoe, next to the agriculture department. With another bucket of soil, excavator operator Sergei Martinovich raised a pot with 299 silver and nickel coins of various denominations to the surface. Having learned about the treasure, television crews came to Glubokoye. They asked Sergei Aleksandrovich to dig once or twice with a shovel “for the sake of the shot.” He dug and found the three hundredth coin. Another “safety cushion”, possibly hidden by the owner in 1939, when power changed in the city, is now on display in the historical and ethnographic museum. But remuneration in the amount of a quarter of the value of the treasure, as in Soviet times, was not paid to Sergei Martinovich. If a man had found a treasure in his own garden, then it would be a different matter, but since he performed work duties on land owned by the city, there would be no reward.

- If they gave me money, I would buy a wedding gift for my niece, she was getting married at the end of October. If they didn’t give it, it’s even better: someone else’s money, easily received, does not bring happiness, the man is sure. “We don’t know what they are: maybe stolen, maybe bloody, maybe cursed.” The most valuable treasure is my family: I have a wife and two sons. We live, we work, there is a roof over our heads, the table is not empty, and it’s good.

Officially, if you find a treasure, what should you do?

What to do if, for example, while digging a well, a cellar or planting potatoes, you find a “gold mine” on your site? Don't even think about hiding your find. The treasure must be disposed of wisely and only within the law.

The treasure must be handed over to government representatives within two days (in villages - to local executive committees) and a certificate of acceptance must be obtained. Then the treasure will be sent for scientific examination, which can last up to three months. The find is assessed not by the value of the metal, but by the numismatic value of the coins. Only after all the necessary procedures have been completed, the lucky winner will receive a reward. Payments for treasures are regulated by the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Remember that administrative liability is provided for misappropriation of treasure, and in especially large amounts - according to Article 223 of the Criminal Code “Violation of the rules on transactions with precious metals and stones” you can receive from 5 to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

For those who are going to visit relatives or friends in Belarus and want to take a metal detector with them to walk through fields, meadows, and look for coins or find treasure, it is worth knowing that a new law regarding this hobby has recently been adopted in Belarus...

So, according to the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated May 22, 2002 No. 651 (as amended by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated July 20, 2012 No. 665) in the Regulations on the protection of archaeological sites during land and construction work, carrying out other activities on the territory of archaeological objects it follows that (Chapter 3):

10. Measures for the protection of archaeological sites during all types of excavation and construction work, and the implementation of other activities on the territory of archaeological sites include:

- we skip the unnecessary...
- prohibition of excavations and exploration, carrying out other actions at archaeological sites using metal detectors, ground penetrating radars, other technical means and tools without obtaining permission (open sheet) from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in the prescribed manner;
- we skip the unnecessary...

You can familiarize yourself with the situation in full.

What is meant by “Archaeological object” - material objects and complexes, etc.
We learned from the rise of the Zeinasci Chalavek and were occupied with the cultural place or at the bottom of natural i piece-made vadaems: waxed pasleyans (old-fashioned garads, garadzishchi, castles), unmattsed paselinas (old-fashioned pasels, shchi, asobnae zhyllyo), mounds and soil burial grounds, asobnya plowshares, necropals , mauzalei i inshiy pahavannas, ancient zbudavanni i inshiy ab'ekt gazpadarchag i vytvorchaga pryznachennya, farfikatsyynya zbudavanni, cultic zbudavanni (temples, monasteries, holy places, holy places, stone I roofs, cult stones, stone statues, abelis), infrastructure of land, water i water-volak paths, manetny i river treasures;

In general, any object where life used to seethe is an archaeological site! Therefore, if you are suddenly caught in such a place with a device and you have, for example, a couple of royal coins in your pocket, then those in power will have a reason to bother you. However, then these powers that be will have to prove in court that it was precisely an archaeological site, and this is not a simple and quick procedure and who wants to bother with it later...

Conclusion: as they say, if you really want to, be careful - you can.

p.s. This interpretation is my understanding of the above resolution, if I am wrong, please justify it and provide information to confirm it, thank you.

p.s.s. I saw an interesting article on the Belarusian portal about what will happen if you find a treasure and want to officially hand it over to the state. After reading. it became clear that they do not have laws that normally and correctly regulate this process, but the treasure you found will be gladly accepted as a gift in any museum)) and unfortunately, getting the normal amount due for the treasure will be oh so problematic. If anyone is interested, you can read the entire article.

According to the calculations of archaeologists and treasure specialists, about three hundred thousand tons of gold and more than two and a half million tons of silver have been buried in the world over the entire existence of mankind. A special place here is given to Belarus. On the territory of Belarus there are many treasures from different eras and peoples. Intex-press has made a selection of the most valuable and famous treasures found on the territory of Belarus.

In general, Belarus is considered one of the richest countries in Europe. Trade routes passed through our territory from north to south and from west to east, which, of course, influenced the amount of valuables left here. Over the past 200 years, more than a thousand different treasures have been found in our country.

1. Gold in a pot

A clay vessel with ducats of European states was discovered during excavation work by a resident of the village of Ilyinka, Mogilev region in 1936. For this valuable find, the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR paid the man a bonus of three thousand rubles.

The pot contained 476 gold coins of Belgian and Danish coinage from the 16th–17th centuries. Gold ducats - the international coins of Western Europe - were sent to Moscow, to the state depository of precious metals, and then to Leningrad. Now the treasure is kept in the Hermitage.

One of the valuable and famous treasures that was found near the village of Vishchin, Rogachevsky district, Gomel region, is considered to be the Vishchinsky monetary and clothing treasure. It was found in 1979 on the right bank of the Dnieper, where there was an ancient castle. The treasure was discovered by archaeologists who examined the fortress wall. As experts have established, it was hidden during the siege of Vishchinsky Castle in the middle of the 13th century at a depth of 18 centimeters.

The cash and clothing treasure with a total weight of about 2 kg contains 37 units, consisting of clothing and monetary parts. The first is represented by women's jewelry:

2 kolts with images of birds on shields made using cloisonné enamel technique;
a starry 6-pointed colt with grain and a colt with an openwork edge and images of 2 birds and a crin;
fragments of a necklace made of 3 oval silver beads and 4 krina-like pendants; fragments of rasens - chains of embossed half-cylinder cuttings on which kolta were hung;
2 pendants with canonical tops and chains attached to them with round plaques with through holes, decorated with filigree and granulation, set with small rings;
a massive bracelet twisted from 3 strands with tips in the form of stylized snake heads;
Double-leaf bracelet with floral patterns and engraved images of birds.

The monetary part consists of silver hryvnia bars (18) of the Kyiv, Novgorod and Lithuanian types.

In 1973, in the village of Kozyanki near Polotsk, boys were walking along a freshly plowed field and noticed several coins. The children began to dig in this place and pulled out about 7,600 silver dirhams, ancient Arab coins from the 6th to 10th centuries. As scientists later found out, this treasure turned out to be the treasury of the Principality of Polotsk, stolen by a band of robbers and buried a thousand years ago. Currently, 7599 coins are kept in the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve.

The treasure, which was found in 1957 while leveling a street on the outskirts of the village of Degtyany, Kopyl district, Minsk region, has no analogues in all of Eastern Europe. The ornamented pot with a handle contained silver jewelry and coins weighing a total of 7 kg. 21 intact and fragmented items and 320 coins have been preserved - denarii of the Czech Republic (123), Hungary (3), Germany (165), England (10), Denmark (1), unidentified denarii (4), imitations of German (9) and English ( 3) denarii. According to experts, the treasure was hidden after 1050. Now the coins and jewelry are kept in the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

5. An excavator lifted more than 10 kg of silver

The Minsk treasure was the last of the large ones found in the USSR. At the beginning of August 1988, at the corner of what was then Volodarsky and Respublikanskaya (now Gorodskaya Val) streets, while digging a trench for laying a heating main, the excavator bucket caught something unusual, reports TUT.by.

In the process of digging a trench, the tractor bucket came across a chest, more reminiscent of a coffin in shape, damaging it slightly. Gold and silver coins, plates, cups, etc. fell out of the chest. The treasure consisted of 547 items, among which there were only thirteen kilograms of silver coins and silver items.

The treasure contained Russian and German coins of various denominations from the late 19th – early 20th centuries. (461 in total), including gold chervonets from the early twentieth century.

THIS hobby is treated differently. Some are sure that there is nothing wrong with digging up everything that the earth is hiding today. And it doesn’t matter who is doing the searching - an avid lover of antiquities or an archaeologist. In the minds of others, excavations are an activity exclusively for professionals who will do everything according to the rules: neither the ground nor the artifacts themselves will be damaged. And profiting from rarities is not in their interests. Everything will go to museums... So is it still possible to dig or not? What does the law say? Are metal detectors allowed? And can all diggers be considered “black”?

OLD maps, historical riddles, unique legends... How to find out what the earth hides? There are those to whom this secret is revealed. Late autumn is a fertile time for searching for artifacts. The ground is not frozen yet, there is practically no vegetation. Dig - I don't want to. With one of the adventurers, Vladislav Ivanov, we go for “treasures” to the Borisov region...

Early in the morning we drive up to the field of the local agricultural enterprise. We were not lucky with the weather. It's raining. Maybe our mini-expedition will end before it even begins? Not so. We arrived - we need to look. Our companion is not a historian by training, but an engineer. How did you become interested in an unusual business?

In the garden in the village I found a so-called wheat cent - a coin with the image of Lincoln in 1909. Then I became interested in what else could be on the site. I bought a metal detector and studied everything. Then I started searching on the Internet for old maps, learning legends - the search area expanded.

A couple of ancient houses stood on the field several decades ago. This was “told” by one of the cards found on the Internet. Since then, of course, the site has been plowed more than once. But the probability of finding something is still high. By the way, on the territory of archaeological sites, and these include, for example, ancient settlements, sites, settlements, excavations are strictly prohibited. You can still explore the fields. In digging circles, those for whom the rules are unwritten are, to put it mildly, not respected. Vladislav gives an example:

They often climb the Brilevskoe field. I don’t understand - this is a historical complex. In addition, I think that those who dig up graves should be severely punished. The forests are still being deliberately searched for weapons from the war. But I don’t see anything wrong with ordinary diggers. If you don't break the law, do it. We also have unspoken rules: do not walk on sown fields, bury holes behind you...

METAL DETECTOR, pinpointer (a device for searching for small objects), shovel, gloves... That's the whole set. Vladislav puts on headphones and starts exploring - moving the metal detector from side to side. A beeping sound comes from the headphones. When the signal becomes clearer, it's time to shovel. Just started digging - first find! However, upon closer inspection, there is nothing special about it.

Perhaps this is part of the door hinge,” the guy twists the intricate piece of iron. - Such “rarities” are a frequent find. On the site of former villages there is a lot of household garbage and bottle caps. In one day you can dig up several kilograms of scrap metal.

We walk around the field for about an hour. Vladislav does not pay attention to many signals. Why? The fact is that special numbers pop up on the metal detector, which tell an experienced digger what is hidden in the ground. For example, the “scale” for iron is from minus 50 to minus 35. As a rule, if you dig according to such a signal, you will get something like our first find.

But now the treasured numbers are displayed on the scoreboard - plus 70. We probably stumbled upon the first coin. We're digging. This time luck smiled - we get a penny from 1924. Vladislav says that the coin, although Soviet, is quite interesting:

It is in good condition, with a non-standard edge. The kopeck was the smallest denomination among the coins issued in 1924. Then, by the way, they carried out denomination - they exchanged old money for new ones. The same thing will happen here in July. And this rarity is already history, it will replenish my collection.

The Borisov resident only began to understand coins when he became interested in being a “cop.” Now he can easily characterize almost everyone. True, he had not yet come across rare coins. Most often among the finds are Soviet ones. Vladislav dreams of digging up the so-called Sestroretsk copper ruble:

It's interesting to even just look at it. This is a giant coin from 1771. Weighs 888 grams. But they were not put into mass production; only a few dozen test copies were released. So the probability of finding it is small, but what if someone hid it?

Within two hours we came across two more coins in poor condition. And suddenly the earth gave us an interesting find - a button with an eagle and a crown. As it turned out, among the diggers there are collectors of similar specimens. Vladislav is not one of them.

Based on the inscription, I can only assume that this button is from the uniform of a British Royal Air Force pilot during World War II. The value of such things is measured only by whether someone needs it or not. As a rule, I exchange buttons for coins that are missing from the collection.

What about the treasures? We spent almost the whole day searching, but found nothing worthwhile. Is the game worth the candle? Amateurs often have such thoughts, explains Vladislav.

In the Borisov region it is almost impossible to find a treasure - everything has been dug up and dug up. Important historical events took place here, and meeting a person with a metal detector here is not a problem. We found a couple of coins, that's good. It happened that for weeks I couldn’t get anything but pieces of iron out of the ground.

As we learned, such a hobby does not bring multimillion-dollar profits. Judge for yourself: in four years, which is exactly how long Vladislav has been interested in studying antiquities, he hasn’t even been able to pay for the metal detector. Basically he exchanges his finds for others. Creates a collection for posterity. He jokes: “You’d rather make money selling scrap metal than selling dug-up coins. On the other hand, these pennies will not remain in the ground. It is doubtful that archaeologists will create an expedition for the sake of one Soviet coin. They are not interested in them, but for us, amateur diggers, they are important.”

AFTER a whole day of searching for treasures, we were convinced: this is still a hobby. The excitement disappears in a matter of hours, especially if you dig in the ground in the pouring rain. All sorts of ancient pieces of iron do not inspire heroic deeds at all, and you just want to throw the metal detector into the attic. But as long as there are enthusiasts who are ready to endure any discomfort and bad weather for the sake of a few rusty coins, the sellers of these devices will definitely not be left without work. According to rough estimates, there are several thousand treasure hunters in our country. Even these are unprofessional historians...

TO THE POINT

The easiest and fastest way to buy a metal detector is to order it online. At least five suppliers promise to sell it with home delivery throughout Belarus. Conventionally, devices can be divided into several groups - for beginners (180-399 USD), middle class (405-850 USD), professional (725-1770 USD).

HELP "SG"

Can I use a metal detector? The ban on the use of this device is established by the Regulations on the protection of archaeological sites during land and construction work, and other activities on the territory of archaeological sites, approved by Government resolution. According to paragraph 10, without permission from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, excavations and exploration at archaeological sites cannot be carried out.

Archaeological objects include “material objects or their complexes that arose as a result of human activity and were preserved in a cultural layer or at the bottom of natural or artificial reservoirs: fortified settlements (ancient cities, fortifications, castles), unfortified settlements (sites, settlements, individual housing ), mounds and ground burial grounds, individual burials, necropolises, mausoleums and other burials, ancient buildings and other objects of economic and industrial purposes, fortification buildings, religious buildings (temples, monasteries, sanctuaries, places of rituals, stone crosses, cult stones, stone statues, obelisks), infrastructure of land, water and water-land routes, coin and material treasures.”

In mid-April, in the center of Grodno, during the restoration of an old building, a builder: gold coins of the Russian Empire, ducats, two chains, rings, small gold bars, gold-plated dental fillings and documents. This is the largest treasure ever found in Grodno. Experts say that such finds, where, in addition to coins, there are also jewelry, are rare. Jewelry is rarely found in treasures. But you shouldn’t lose hope in your “barrel of gold”: there are still many amazing things in the Belarusian land.

The total weight of gold from the Grodno treasure is almost 500 grams. The jewelry was placed in a small tobacco box, which someone carefully hid in the attic of an old house in the very center of the city. According to preliminary estimates, the treasure could be worth about 30 thousand dollars.

The owner of the gold jewelry could be a dental technician or jeweler

- You know, the builder was very excited and confused when we arrived at the site. He actually worked there alone on that working Saturday, dismantling the roof. He told us that he often found similar boxes when renovating ancient buildings - albeit empty ones - and was not particularly surprised when he came across this one. I wanted to throw it down, but it was unusually heavy. I opened it, and there was gold. The man, in general, needs to be noted somehow, because it is quite rare for such treasures to reach the museum in their entirety. And there are examples when they don’t reach it at all,” says the chief curator of the funds of the Grodno State Historical and Archaeological Museum Elena Zharina laying out golden objects on the table. Women's rings, wedding rings, pendants, chains, earrings.

Found jewelry can be looked at for a very long time. Here, for example, is a medallion that looks like a small book that opens and you can insert a photograph into it. You expect there to be a photo of a young girl inside, but there is no photo here.

It is difficult to say now who owned the treasure and exactly when the jewelry was hidden. The house on 2nd Trudovaya is located in the old center of Grodno, where the ghetto was located during World War II, which the Germans liquidated in 1943.

Experts have several versions.

Chairman of the NGO "Belarusian Numismatic Society" Victor Kakareko believes that the hidden jewelry and gold coins could have belonged to a dental technician, to whom patients brought gold for fillings. This version is supported by crowns and blanks for them, as well as metal shavings. The master could also be a moneylender, that is, the residents of Grodno knew that he bought scrap of precious metals and brought him their jewelry.

Another option: the owner of the treasure was a jeweler, and the jewelry was brought to him to be melted down and repaired. For example, among the rings there are wedding rings with inscriptions in Polish. This means they could belong to Catholics.

The third version: this is the property of several people, which they hid before the liquidation of the ghetto in the hope of returning and taking the jewelry. Alas, the treasure lay under the roof of the old house until 2018 - that is, the owner never came for it.

Now museum specialists are describing what they found and deciphering the marks on the jewelry. It is already known that among the jewelry there are those that were made in the period before 1927. This is evidenced by the so-called spool stamps on products, which after this year ceased to be used everywhere.

Experts have yet to accurately evaluate the treasure, recognize it (this is what the museum hopes) as historical and cultural value, and arrange it for further storage and display.

In total, the Grodno Historical and Archaeological Museum houses 24 treasures found in the region. Three of them are from Grodno. Moreover, one was found during archaeological excavations on the same street where gold jewelry was recently found. Another one was discovered in 2016 during the reconstruction of a house on Antonov Street. The treasure was hidden under the foundation of the house. There were jewelry and gold coins.

Over the past 200 years, more than a thousand different treasures have been found in Belarus.

Treasures are found in different ways. Most often - during the construction of houses, carrying out excavation work and... digging up vegetable gardens. For example, in 1988, a heating main was laid in Minsk at the intersection of Volodarsky and Respublikanskaya (now Gorodskoy Val) streets. Then the excavator operator scooped up more than ten kilograms of pure silver with a ladle - coins, medals and other valuables.

One of the most famous Belarusian treasures, Koziankovsky, was also found completely by accident. In 1973, boys from the village of Kozyanki near Polotsk were walking along a freshly plowed field and noticed several coins. They began to dig in this place and pulled out a whole wealth of wealth from the ground. Experts suggested that it was the treasury of the Principality of Polotsk, which was stolen by robbers and hidden until good times.

Elena Zharina says that a lot of treasures were found in the 50s: new lands were being developed, fields were plowed up, where coins and pots were discovered.

For example, in 1953, 16-year-old Grisha Pronko from the village of Knyazhevodtsy (Mostovsky district) was grazing cows on the banks of the Neman and at some point saw the handle of a jug. I decided to hit it with a stick, broke it, and coins fell out. Some of them - about 400 pieces - were transferred to the Grodno Museum. The treasure consisted of Lithuanian and Polish triples, pennies, half pennies, double dinars, as well as hundreds of coins from different European states. Among them, Russian wire kopecks stood out, their shape resembling fish scales.

One of the largest treasures in Belarus was found in the village of Zachepichi, Dyatlovsky district, in 1956. Local residents planted trees and found coins in their plots. Initially, the treasure consisted of about five thousand coins, but part of it was dispersed among the village residents. Thanks to a local teacher Ivan Ivashevich About two and a half thousand coins were transferred to the Grodno Museum. 102 coins “settled” in Dyatlovo. The majority of the treasure consists of billon one and a half coins, pennies and solidi of Zhigimont Vasa with a small admixture of billon coins from states and cities of Central Europe.

In 2016, during the construction of the Vokzalnaya metro station in the capital of Belarus, workers found gold coins from the time of Nicholas II. Such coins can be sold at auctions for $200–500. The treasure found in the metro was transferred to the Minsk History Museum.

According to Victor Kakareko, what is found in modern vegetable gardens and fields is the accumulation of local residents from ancient times. At one time, they hid their belongings in barns, stables or under the stove in the house. By the way, geese were considered good guards of money: they say, if a stranger enters the barn, the birds will begin to cackle loudly, notifying the owner of the intrusion.

- Then they saved money for various needs - for example, to pay taxes or rent land plots. Sometimes they hid money in emergency situations - during wars and epidemics. You can often find Jewish piggy banks in the ground: according to Jewish tradition, when turning to God, you need to put aside a coin to restore justice - supposedly to help those who live poorer. Coins were accumulated, the piggy bank was given to the kahal, where on one of the holidays it was broken and the money was distributed for the needs of the poor. Such piggy banks were produced in different shapes, for example, clay “onion boxes” - they were made for the Passover holiday, says Victor Kakareko. — Jews were also the most prosperous people in rural areas. They were engaged in the production and sale of alcoholic beverages, kept taverns and inns and paid special taxes. How can you raise the required amount at that time? Of course, put it in a piggy bank, and so that dishonest people don’t take what you have, you need to hide the money.

Unfound treasures: Napoleon's gold, 12 apostles and the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk

Of course, legends are associated with Belarusian treasures. Especially with those that have not yet been found.

For example, the 12 Radziwill apostles. The figures were human-sized and cast from gold and silver. They disappeared at the beginning of the 19th century. They say that the sculptures are still located somewhere in the basements of Nesvizh Castle. True, during the reconstruction of the historical complex in the catacombs, experts did not find anything.

Another legendary treasure is two barrels of gold, which Napoleon allegedly took from Moscow and hid somewhere near the Berezina. True, there is another version - the French ruler distributed all the coins to the soldiers. This version can be confirmed by the discovery of students from BSU who came to the Borisov district to harvest potatoes. During agricultural work, they came across the remains of a French soldier, whose wallet contained several Russian gold coins of that time.

Well, finally, the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, which disappeared during the last war, has still not been found. And the Belarusian land, experts are sure, still hides a lot of interesting things.

...By the way, if a treasure is recognized as a historical and cultural value, then the one who discovered it and (or) the owner of the land where the treasure was located have the right to receive a monetary reward. According to the Civil Code, the finder is entitled to 50% of the value of the treasure. If the coins found, for example, are not of historical and cultural value, then they become the property of the owner of the site and the person who found the treasure, in equal shares, unless they agree otherwise. Appropriation of the found treasure entails administrative liability. For this, a fine of up to five basic units is provided, and if the amount of the treasure is particularly large (a thousand or more times the amount of the basic amount established on the day the crime was committed), this is already criminal liability.

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