If you’ve been trying to convince yourself to exercise more lately, consider the recent case of a woman in the Czech Republic who went out for a walk one day and accidentally found a treasure trove of more than 2,150 silver coins dating from more than 900 years ago.

It’s a discovery that “can be compared to winning a million in the jackpot,” said Filip Velímský, an archaeologist from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague, in a statement translated from the original Czech. 

The stash of silver coins represents “a huge amount,” he explained, “unimaginable for an ordinary person and at the same time unaffordable.”

So why would such a bounty be hidden away for 900 years? Experts at the Czech Silver Museum and the Prague Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic have a few theories: it may have originally been meant for soldiers’ wages, they suggest, or even been some kind of war loot. It certainly would make sense: Prague may now be a tourist hotspot known for its unrivaled beauty and beer, but things haven’t always been so halcyon in the Czech capital. 

Indeed, go back a millennium or so, to the period when the coins were minted, and you’ll find yourself in the turbulent era of the house of Přemysl – and yes, we know how Game of Thrones that name sounds, but seriously: between the years 999, when Boleslav “the Pious” died, and the end of the 12th century, when Otakar I formally established Bohemia as a kingdom, Prague was basically the epicenter of a near-constant nation-level family squabble. 

“[It] was probably placed [there] during the first quarter of the 12th century, at a time of internal political instability,” Velímský explained. “At that time, there were disputes in the country between the members of the Přemysl dynasty about the princely throne of Prague.”

Originally, the cache was stored in a ceramic pot – but after nine centuries of land use, including plowing, only the base was left intact. The treasure itself, though, represents the largest collection of early medieval coins yet found in the region, comprising mintages of at least three 11th and 12th-century monarchs. 

The coins are now being processed, ready to hopefully be displayed to the public by summer 2025. And there’s a lot of work to do: “museum staff will […] register all parts of the find in the collection,” explained Lenka Mazačová, director of the Czech Silver Museum in Kutná Hora, as well as having “to also ensure the cleaning of individual coins and possible restoration interventions, their photography for publication and promotional purposes […] including the preparation of a detailed catalogue.”

That’s not all. With more detailed analysis of the coins, the experts should hopefully be able to work out not only who minted them, but where they did it. That’s because the silver that was used to forge the coins can be traced, via the elements also found in the alloy, to the precise location where it was originally mined – which is why the coins have a round of X-ray imaging and spectral analysis in their future, to determine their specific composition.

And while it’s no coincidence there’s a silver museum in the area – during medieval times, this region was responsible for about one third of all the silver production in Europe, thanks to rich natural deposits of the metal – Mazačová suspects a non-local origin: “the coins were most likely minted in the Prague mint from silver that was imported to Bohemia at the time,” she said.

Whatever the outcome, though, experts are agreed that the discovery is “one of the greatest finds of the last decade”, per the statement. And the best part for the lucky rambler who discovered them? She should see about 10 percent of the value as a reward – not a bad take for a random hike across a field.