Panaji: Goa’s treasury vault opened for the first time in over 30 years contains more than 6,000 antique coins besides gold pieces, jewellery and antique artefacts. The vault was opened by a committee comprising the state’s finance secretary and director of accounts, among others.
The vault was last accessed in 1992, the first occasion when the government opened it after the state’s liberation in 1961.
According to a report compiled by the Directorate of Archives and Archaeology, the vault contained more than 6,000 coins, mostly copper belonging to different eras, including 307 copper coins of Portuguese origin belonging to different years weighing 3.15 kg, 1,746 Arabic coins weighing 20 kg, 1695 British Imperial coins weighing 22 kg that contain the embossment of Queen Victoria and King William among others.
It also contained 787 unidentified copper coins weighing 15 kg, 320 antique coins weighing 3.477 kg, and 1,026 copper coins worth 16 Reals (Portuguese currency between 1430 and 1911) weighing 38 kg and pieces of gold weighing approximately 2.234 kg.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said the state was yet to quantify the value of the treasure.
“At present, I can’t say the value of these items. We have also informed the central archaeology department of the find,” the chief minister said, adding that sample coins drawn from the treasury would be displayed at the Goa State Archaeology Museum.
The vault was opened by a committee comprising the state’s finance secretary and director of accounts, among others, in view of the government shifting the offices of the accounts directorate that was operating from an old Portuguese-era building “Fazenda” to a newly constructed building.
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