It Pays to be Curious, as This Inquisitive Plumber Discovered

An Austrian plumber hit the proverbial and literal jackpot when he decided to investigate what was on the end of a piece of rope.

While renovating a house in Vienna, he spotted the end of a piece of rope sticking out of a basement floor, and after digging through the concrete it protruded from, he was, well, floored. The rope was attached to a real-life treasure chest full of gold worth an estimated $2.4 million.

The chest contained 66 pounds of gold coins - all dated to before World War II, with the image of the famous Austrian composer Mozart stamped on each one. How the hoard came to be buried in the concrete floor of a cellar is anyone's guess, but the delighted man told local media that “Something like that is really unbelievable... Every now and then you find a few coins, but a discovery like this is incredible.”

Better yet, the fortunate plumber may get to keep up to half the haul, even though it isn’t his property. In Austria, the law provides special treatment for discovered treasure, allowing the finder and the property owner to split the treasure.

Old coin and even ancient coin discoveries happen with reasonable frequency in Europe. Such as a hoard of 2,584 silver pennies from the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 that was bought for £4.3m ($5.6m) in 2024 - making it the highest-value treasure ever found in the UK; or the lucky diver who uncovered at least 30,000 ancient Roman coins in remarkable condition off the coast of Sardinia in 2025.

Now, thanks to a weird cement-anchored rope, Vienna joins the list with one of the more surprising treasure troves found in Europe.