Workers Find Almost $1 Million in Gold Coins Hidden in Roof Rafters
There are “good days” at work and then there are “great days” at work. For those who work at a French Champagne producer, this was certainly a “great day.” Workers were tearing out a ceiling in an old building in a renovation project. One of the workers was using a crowbar to pull out the debris. Gold coins started to fall. Those coins were followed by bags and bags of gold coins.
There are treasure hunters who search the ocean floors for gold and other precious items. However, finding a million dollars in gold stuck in a ceiling is certainly not something one finds every day. Gold has been steadily increasing in value, too. At the end of last year, gold was sitting at $1,920 an ounce.
The workers found a total of 497 gold coins. The coins were minted between 1851 and 1928. Most are worth about $20 a pieces. Together, though, they are worth an incredible $980,000.
Here’s what makes the workers have a “great day,” though. The head of Alexandre Bonnet, Francois Lange, said that he will keep half of the money from the gold coins for himself. The other half, though, is going to be slip among the workers. Now that’s a big bonus!
It’s not known who might have put the coins in rafters. The building was owned by a wine company in the 1930s. It’s quite possible that someone will come forward and try to claim the fortune, saying that it was their family’s building and so on. However, since Lange is currently the owner of the building, it’s not likely that such a claim would be honored. There is a legal case that is ongoing about a team of ocean scavengers who found $500 million in gold coins in a shipwreck. The ship was of Spanish origin and the treasure hunters are fighting Spain for the gold.
