On Saturday, a picture showcasing a bunch of gold coins with dirt and mud all around them started to make rounds across social media platforms in Kashmir and became the ‘talk of the town’.
The picture of the treasure was shared on the Internet with a caption that said gold and silver coins were found by laborers while digging a canal near Wular Lake situated in Bandipora district of Kashmir.
“Khazaana Mil Gaya, as per reports one labor from Baramulla area found Golden & Silver coins while digging a canal near Wular Lake on Saturday, 13 Feb 2021. Around 30 laborers were working for the project,” said a Facebook user while sharing the picture.
According to India Today’s Fact-Check desk, the viral picture is found to be of Italian origin. The picture shows gold coins of the late Imperial era which were found by laborers while renovating an old theatre in Italy’s Como town.
The archived version can be seen here.
Fact-Check Probe
On reverse-searching the said Image, it was found that the ‘The Irish Sun’ website on 10th September of 2018 reported about the gold coins and according to the report, Laborers working on a renovation of a theatre in Italy had found 1500-year-old gold coins that were stuffed inside a vase.
On September 7 of 2018, the ministry of culture and tourism of Italy had also posted the same image with a caption in the Italian language itself, which translates to: Hundreds of gold coins from the late imperial era have been found in the centre of #Como, in a soapstone container with an unusual shape. “A discovery that fills me with pride,” said the minister @BonisoliAlberto.
‘Australian Broadcasting Corporation’ also posted a report on September 14 of 2018 that said, hundreds of Roman gold coins were found on the banks of famous Como Lake during the excavation of historic Cressoni Theatre.
However, the Fact-Checking desk didn’t find any report about gold coins being spotted near one of the largest lakes in Asia ‘Wular Lake’.
This made it clear that the picture of gold coins making rounds on social media is an old image and has no connection with Jammu and Kashmir.