The find may confirm a long-held theory about how Southerners protected their treasures during the Civil War. 

An unidentified man found a hoard of gold coins in a cornfield in Kentucky. 

The coins found, minted before or during the Civil War, could be worth more than one million dollars. 

Urban legends of hoards buried before and during the Civil War have been going around for years. 

Recently, an unidentified man found a treasure trove of more than 700 gold coins in a Kentucky cornfield, believed to be worth more than one million dollars.  

According to The New York Times, this hoard confirms the long-held belief of treasure hunters that Southerners buried valuables before and during the Civil War to protect them from invading armies.  

The find, now called the “Great Kentucky Hoard,” includes authentic one, ten, and twenty-dollar gold coins minted before and during the Civil War. 

As Live Science reports, Ryan McNutt, a Confederate archaeologist at Georgia Southern University, believes the coins may have been buried before a Confederate raid by General John Hunt Morgan in the summer of 1863. 

At the time, Kentucky was declared a neutral state. Residents of the state worried that the Confederacy might steal their funds, so some believe that people may have buried their wealth in the ground for safekeeping. 

Since the 19th century, treasure hunters have been trying to find gold they believe was hidden during the Civil War.  

In 2018, an American treasure hunter accused the FBI of covering a possible Civil War gold find in Pennsylvania. According to The New York Times, the FBI was investigating in rural Dents Run, Pennsylvania, where a “hoard of lost Civil War gold” was rumored to be located. The CBS television station reported that local lore says a shipment of 1863 Union gold disappeared en route to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. 

But the FBI assured that excavations were conducted in 2018. the hole turned up empty, and rumors of buried Civil War gold remained rumors. According to CBS Television, court-ordered government photos, videos, maps, and other documents have appeared to support the FBI’s claims.  

The Kentucky coins have already been sold, and the entire collection could fetch over one million dollars. 

Even though the coins have been in the ground for one hundred and sixty years, almost all are in mint condition. One gold dollar from the collection was valued at about one thousand dollars. 

According to The New York Times, one type of coin in the collection, an 1863 Liberty gold two-dollar, could fetch anywhere from a few thousand dollars to more than $380,000 at auction, depending on the condition and time of minting.  

The exact location where the coins were found and who discovered them has yet to be disclosed. However, a video captures the moment an unknown man made the historic find. 

In a short clip posted on YouTube by GovMint, a company that sells coins, the man can be heard calling the number of coins he dug up “the craziest event in history.” 

“This is what every treasure hunter dreams of, and this man is living it,” one commenter wrote.