In July 1974, on an ordinary morning, in an old mansion in Fugou County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, I accidentally found an ancient well that was dug out, and there were large pots of gold coins hidden in it, and the amount was so large that the estimated value reached 3 billion, which shocked the national archaeological community. This jar is a rare treasure that has never been unearthed in our country before...
Sun Benli's old house, who lives in the Gubei Team of Gubei In Gugou County, has fallen into disrepair, and when it rains, it is like a water curtain cave, and Sun Benli plans to demolish the old house to build a new house.
On the morning of July 31, 1974, Sun Benli came to the old mansion with a shovel on his shoulder against the big sun, and he thought about digging a large pit to install the lime used to build the house. Neighbor Zhao Genwang was idle and came to help.
Zhao Genwang just shaved a few times, "tom" a sound, the shovel seems to poke a hard object.
He dug hard, digging hard, and an ancient well stuffed with mud appeared in front of his eyes. Zhao Genwang was stunned, what is this thing?
He hurriedly called out to Sun Benli, and when the two of them looked at it, they were sad, how could this foundation be beaten? Can the house still be built?
Dig it all, see what's inside this well? So the two of them pulled the mud out little by little with their hands.
"The sky pays off", there was a big guy, the two of them dug up with sweat, and a kettle-shaped copper jar appeared.
The sharp-eyed Zhao Genwang found that there was another thing inside the well!
After a while, he took out an "incense burner" and cleaned the mud outside the "incense burner", Zhao Genwang felt that this stove might be an ancient treasure, and this was going to be sent!
Sun Benli immediately ran to his family yard with the jar in his arms, but because he hugged it too tightly, the jar instantly cracked...
Pieces of gold nuggets fell out, Sun Benli and the two were stunned, they knew that this might be a cultural relic, but they did not think that there could be gold falling here!
Zhao Genwang saw that there was gold in the jar, so the "incense burner" in his hand must also have it, so he hurriedly opened it.
But there is a rusty lid on the incense burner, and it can't be screwed open, and Zhao Genwangxing, who saw the money eye open, rushed to find an iron and directly pried it open.
Sure enough, a bunch of black "spatulas" lay inside. Zhao Genwang was a little depressed, what is this thing?
The two stared wide-eyed for a while, and the villagers heard the two of them shouting and screaming, and rushed here, and some people even went forward to carry two "spatulas" and ran away with a cigarette.
Imagine two big brothers, one holding a big jar with gold scattered on the ground, which is so exciting...
Sun Benli was angry and wanted to vomit blood, as the deputy secretary of the brigade, of course, he knew that after digging up the cultural relics, he had to hand them in, but how would this situation end?
Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Sun Benli did not dare to delay and immediately reported it...
The Cultural Relics Bureau came and urged the villagers to hand over the stolen cultural relics. The villagers did not dare to hide it privately and handed it in one after another, but one villager was too anxious to go home and bake the "spatula"...
Through the confiscation, the amount of gold found was as high as 400 pieces, which frightened the Fugou County Cultural Relics Bureau to send cultural relics to the provincial museum overnight.
After the appraisal of provincial experts, it was learned that the original batch of cultural relics had a great deal. The jar that had been torn apart was obviously a "Warring States Kettle", and the incense burner was a bronze ding,
As for the pile of gold nuggets, they were gold coins from the Chu period, and the pieces of "pot and shovel" were the silver cloth coins of the Chu kingdom. Experts not only lamented that "these are all rare treasures!" ”
The next day, the experts came to Sun Benli's old residence and carefully surveyed the pit of the excavated cultural relics, and determined that this was a kiln collection, dating back to the Chu period.
According to historical data, Fugou County was called Tongqiu in ancient times, and during the Warring States period, it belonged to the Chu State.
Immediately after the experts carried out excavation work, after the archaeological work, these cultural relics were transferred to the Huaiyang Cultural Relics Bureau for storage.
Experts have consulted a large number of materials and found that these gold and silver coins have a special origin. Such a large number of Chu gold and silver coins is the first time in China, which is of great significance to the archaeological community.
The State of Chu was the earliest period of gold coinage in China, and in the Shang Dynasty, shell coins were used, but in the Spring and Autumn Period, because the economy prospered, commodity exchange reached its peak, and the monetary system of the Western Zhou Dynasty was replaced, and the economically developed princely states began to mint metal coins.
It is worth mentioning that the State of Chu was the main producer of gold in ancient times, and naturally, the State of Chu became the only country that used gold coins during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Among the excavated cultural relics, there is also a "silver pot shovel", so what is this silver pot spatula?
The "silver spatula", that is, the silver cloth coin, was first discovered in China, and its advent also confirmed that there was indeed a "platinum" currency in the pre-Qin Dynasty.
So how much is this pile of gold and silver coins unearthed in Fugou County worth in modern times?
In 2018, a copper coin from the Qin State during the Warring States period was auctioned at a high price of 10.89 million yuan, and a gold five-baht coin in the Han Dynasty was even worse, with a direct price of 17.325 million yuan.
According to this price, then, is not the cultural relics handed over by Sun Benli nearly 3 billion yuan? From a historical point of view, this is a priceless treasure!
In fact, the reason why the unearthed gold and silver coins are in the ancient well is likely to be because of the war outside the city that year, the owner of the gold and silver coin felt that it was too conspicuous to hold the escape, and he chose to put it into a copper jar and bury it in the well in desperation, thinking of coming back to dig it later, but the owner of the gold and silver coin was most likely killed in the war.
Therefore, this pile of gold and silver coins was buried in the ground for more than two thousand years before it was able to see the light of day.
Local cultural relics experts specially rewarded Sun Benli and Zhao Genwang with 50 yuan each to show their contribution to the protection of cultural relics.