Conservation specialists at a prominent Gothic church in Germany have unearthed a "large sum of wealth" hidden in the leg of a statue nearly 400 years ago. The treasure – four caches of coins dating back to the 1600s – is believed to have been concealed during the Thirty Years' War, when Swedish soldiers habitually plundered the region.
A curator and head of department at the State Coin Cabinet of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany revealed the information to Live Science in an email. The team who made the discovery, which was made in May 2022 but not made public until November 2024, found the coins at St. Andrew's Church, a Gothic church in Eisleben, a town in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt. This church is where Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer who wrote the "Ninety-five Theses" criticising corruption in the Roman Catholic Church, gave his final four sermons in 1546.
Around 100 years later, circa 1640, someone utilised the church as a sanctuary to conceal their cache. They placed the four "bulging purses" containing 816 coins within a cavity of a sandstone statue's leg, which is a part of a monument dedicated to a countess and count, Dräger stated.
"It's nothing short of a miracle that this treasure wasn't discovered sooner," he said. It will take some time for coin experts to put a value on the hoard, but "as things stand, I'd say it's a vast fortune - far more than a craftsman could earn in a twelve-month period," he observed.
The most valuable gold coins were wrapped in paper and identified as belonging to the church's treasury. "However, it is not the collection box from the Sunday service," Dräger said. "Rather, it is the income from the pastors' special services," such as weddings, baptisms, and funerals. Pastors also collected money from "chair fees," where churchgoers paid to sit in priority seats, he pointed out.
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Gold ducats and double ducats; silver coins, including thalers, half-thalers and quarter-thalers; and many hundreds of pennies.
From 1618 to 1648, a series of wars broke out, prompted by the Holy Roman emperor imposing its control over religion within its territory, and subsequently escalating into disputes over politics, territory and trade in nearby parts of Europe. During this conflict, Swedish soldiers repeatedly raided Saxony-Anhalt, including Eisleben. Locals were compelled to accommodate and provide for the Swedish troops and pay them substantial amounts of money. "Eisleben lost roughly half of its population between 1628 and 1650," Dräger stated. "[It] was a picture of perpetual war horror."
What was the value of the hoard?
To put the treasure into context, a successful 17th-century miner in the area earned around 1 thaler, or 24p, every week, Dräger said. One pound (0.45kg) of butter cost approximately 3p, and two herrings cost two pence. Alongside the gold and silver coins, the treasure contains about 800p.
Dräger described this loss as a major tragedy at the time. "This makes the find a highly significant historical and real evidence, not just for Eisleben, but also for the history of Saxony-Anhalt and its place at the heart of Europe," he said.
Historians are aware that since 1561, Eisleben had a "Aerarium Pastorale" - a common parish fund which was used as a pension and health fund, as social insurance for pastors, and to invest in the training of theologians. "Perhaps we now have this fund in front of us," Dräger said. "Historical research will clarify this."
Scientists are planning to study each coin separately and record their discoveries both on the internet and at the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle, in addition to sharing their findings at St. Andrew's Church.
"It is really fortunate that the Lutherstadt Eisleben Protestant Parish Association kindly agreed to lend us the coins so that research can be done on them," Dräger said.
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