17th-century century hoard brimming with 1,000 coins discovered in Poland

A metal detectorist searching for discarded tractor parts on a Polish farm discovered a completely different type of valuable metal: A spectacular hoard of 17th-century coins buried beneath the soil.

The hoard — a vast stash of about 1,000 copper coins — was found in late February near the small village of Zaniówka in eastern Poland, near the borders with Belarus and Ukraine, by a local man, Michał Łotys.

Łotys was using a new metal detector to find spare parts for his sister's tractor; and so when the instrument started beeping in one of the farm's fields, he scraped away a layer of the topsoil. That revealed the coins spilling out of a broken clay "siwak" — a jug in a local style with one handle and a narrow neck.

Using a metal detector to search for buried relics without a permit is illegal in Poland, and so Łotys contacted archaeologists in the nearby city of Lublin, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southeast of Warsaw, who visited the farm the next day.

Related: Stunning gem-covered gold earrings discovered in 800-year-old hoard in Germany

Their investigations showed that the location of the hidden hoard was clearly outlined on the surface of the soil, which indicated it had been buried there intentionally, according to a report in the Polish news outlet The First News (opens in new tab).

Treasure hunters estimate the entire horde of about 1,000 copper coins would have been enough at the time to buy two pairs of shoes, or perhaps 20 gallons of beer. (Image credit: Paweł Ziemuk/WKZ Lublin)Buried hoard

Dariusz Kopciowski, the director of Lublin's heritage conservation agency, announced in a Facebook post (opens in new tab) on March 2 that the hoard has about 1,000 Polish and Lithuanian copper coins minted in the 17th century.

Oxidation after roughly 400 years in the ground means all the copper coins are now colored green; and many have corroded together in layers. But about 115 of the coins are loose, and the entire hoard weighs about 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms), Kopciowski noted.

Investigations show most of the coins were created between 1663 and 1666 in mints in Warsaw; Vilnius in Lithuania; and Brest, which is now in Belarus but was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 

window.sliceComponents = window.sliceComponents || {}; externalsScriptLoaded.then(() => { window.reliableDOMContentLoaded.then(() => { var componentContainer = document.querySelector("#slice-container-imageGallery-6"); if(componentContainer) { var data = {"galleryData":[{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"VdLZmwhpmAZVwozaGk5SH8","name":"Small copper coins laid out among some broken clay pot pieces.jpg","caption":"The horde contains about 1,000 small copper coins from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of them were minted between 1663 and 1666.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Pawe\u0142 Ziemuk\/WKZ Lublin"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/VdLZmwhpmAZVwozaGk5SH8.jpg","alt":"The horde contains about 1000 small copper coins from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of them were minted between 1663 and 1666.","width":1920,"height":1080,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}},{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"zAfEw7MzoxK7iwcy4MHuB8","name":"Close up of copper coins show they are green from oxidation.jpg","caption":"The copper coins are now green from oxidation, and many of them are corroded together in layers. The horde weighs about 6.6 pounds in total.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Pawe\u0142 Ziemuk\/WKZ Lublin"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/zAfEw7MzoxK7iwcy4MHuB8.jpg","alt":"The copper coins are now green from oxidation, and many of them are corroded together in layers. The horde weighs about 6.6 pounds in total.","width":1920,"height":1080,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}},{"title":"","description":[],"image":{"id":"G9t5PR5GJGcxMMDRVyC4T8","name":"Top view of oxidized copper coins in broken clay jug.jpg","caption":"Copper coins were a popular innovation at the time. They were much cheaper to mint than the existing silver coins of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were heavily debased and difficult to acquire.","credit":{"text":"(Image credit: {subject})","subject":"Pawe\u0142 Ziemuk\/WKZ Lublin"},"src":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/G9t5PR5GJGcxMMDRVyC4T8.jpg","alt":"Copper coins were a popular innovation at the time. They were much cheaper to mint than the existing silver coins of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were heavily debased and difficult to acquire.","width":1920,"height":1080,"srcSetSizes":[320,480,650,970,1024,1200],"sizes":{"default":"calc(100vw - 40px)","1000px":"970px"},"fullscreen":false,"lazyLoading":true,"addSEOMetaData":false,"eager":false,"removeNativeWidthRestriction":false}}],"progressText":"Image {currentSlide} of {totalSlides}","viewOriginalText":"View Original"}; var triggerHydrate = function() { window.sliceComponents.imageGallery.hydrate(data, componentContainer); } var triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate = function() { if (window.sliceComponents.imageGallery === undefined) { var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/10-9-3/imageGallery.js'; script.async = true; script.id = 'vanilla-slice-imageGallery-6-component-script'; script.onload = () => { window.sliceComponents.imageGallery = imageGallery; triggerHydrate(); }; document.head.append(script); } else { triggerHydrate(); } } if (window.lazyObserveElement) { window.lazyObserveElement(componentContainer, triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate, 1500); } else { console.log('Could not lazy load slice JS for imageGallery-6') } } }).catch(err => console.log('Hydration Script has failed for imageGallery-6 Slice', err)); }).catch(err => console.log('Externals script failed to load', err)); Image 1 of 3The horde contains about 1,000 small copper coins from the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of them were minted between 1663 and 1666. (Image credit: Paweł Ziemuk/WKZ Lublin)The copper coins are now green from oxidation, and many of them are corroded together in layers. The horde weighs about 6.6 pounds in total. (Image credit: Paweł Ziemuk/WKZ Lublin)Copper coins were a popular innovation at the time. They were much cheaper to mint than the existing silver coins of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were heavily debased and difficult to acquire. (Image credit: Paweł Ziemuk/WKZ Lublin)

According to the Polish metal detectorist website Zwiadowca Historii (opens in new tab), such coins are known as "boratynki" after Tito Livio Burattini (opens in new tab), who was the manager of the Kraków mint at that time.

Burattini, an Italian, was a famed inventor and polymath who introduced copper coins to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth because they were much cheaper to make than the existing silver coins of the realm; and because its treasury was devastated after years of war with Sweden, Russia and Cossacks.

The "boratynki" coins were initially popular, although Burattini was later accused of debasing the copper metal they were made of and reaping huge profits. 

related stories

—Medieval coin hoard could be one of the largest ever discovered in Scotland

—Gold coin hoard worth $300K found beneath kitchen floor in England

—Metal detectorist stumbles across Viking treasure hoard in Norway

For a start, they weren't very valuable, which meant they could be used in everyday transactions; the entire hoard of 1,000 copper coins from Zaniówka would buy  only "about two pairs of shoes" at the time, although they're worth more now as historical relics, Zwiadowca Historii reported.

The Zaniówka coin hoard will now be transferred to specialists at a museum in the nearby city of Biała Podlaska for further investigations, Kopciowski said.

Fragments of the broken clay jug and several pieces of fabric from the time were also found at the site, he said in the statement.