BHOPAL: Labourers digging at a site belonging to a primary school teacher in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district have stumbled upon a treasure trove of rare medieval gold and silver coins. They were working on the construction of a new house after the existing house at the site had been pulled down.The labourers, identified as Ram Nath, Buddhsen Singh and Ravi Singh, who sold three coins to make a quick buck, have been arrested by the Shahdol district police. As many as 53 coins, including 51 silver coins and two gold coins, have been seized from the arrested trio, who have been booked under the provisions of the Indian Treasure Trove Act 1878.The questioning of the labourer Ram Nath, from whom 46 coins have been recovered, led the police to a jeweller who admitted purchasing one of the gold coins weighing 10.8 gm from him for Rs 70,000. The jeweller has told the Shahdol district police that the gold coin was 99.8% pure.“We’ve shared with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) experts in Bhopal, the pictures and other details of the coins seized from the three labourers. The experts believe that the coins bearing Arabic and Persian inscriptions date back to the Medieval Indian Period – the rule of Alauddin Khilji and the reign of Sher Shah Suri’s son Islam Shah Suri (13th century to 16th century). The construction work at the concerned site in Khamha village has been halted with immediate effect,” Shahdol district police superintendent Ramji Srivastava told TNIE on Thursday.
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