With Just a Hoe, Primary School Teacher Uncovers Treasure Worth Billions in Schoolyard
The saying “rain brings blessings” became reality for Nuryasin, a teacher and head of SDN Pejagan IV in Madura. Amid the rain pouring down, he unexpectedly found a valuable treasure.
The incident began when Nuryasin noticed the school field was muddy due to the rain, worrying that the clean school floors would get dirty from the students’ comings and goings. He took the initiative to address the problem. Nuryasin then picked up a hoe and started digging the soil to fill the muddy areas with dry earth.
“I was digging soil in the yard to fill the other muddy spots left by the rain,” Nuryasin explained.
The soil digging proceeded very smoothly. Nuryasin successfully filled one muddy spot after another. Only a few spots remained unfinished.
When he was about to dig deeper into the dry soil, around 25-30 cm, Nuryasin was suddenly startled. He was shocked to see ancient pottery in the excavation hole.
The pottery was then removed, and unexpectedly, it contained an unforeseen treasure: ancient coin currency from the VOC era.
“The coins found are inscribed with VOC and the emblem of the Dutch Kingdom, with usage years between 1746 and 1760, diameter 2.1 cm. The second type has a diameter of 2.9 cm, minted with the inscription Indiae Batav from 1819 to 1828,” reported Suara Karya (1 February 1991).
News of Nuryasin’s treasure discovery immediately caused a stir in Indonesia. Relevant authorities rushed to the scene.
In short, Nuryasin’s find was confirmed as historical relics in the form of silver coins from the VOC and Dutch colonial period. The total weighed 13 kg, equivalent to billions of rupiah.
After the discovery, many people thought Nuryasin would become a billionaire. Because he found historical treasure of high value. However, Nuryasin refused to turn the archaeological find into wealth, even though many encouraged him to sell all the findings rather than hand them over to the government.
“But that’s impossible for me to do. We will hand over the found money to the museum, based on instructions from the Ministry of Education and Culture,” said Nuryasin.
In the end, Nuryasin did not become a billionaire. However, his name is recorded in history as the discoverer of significant treasure.
Ultimately, the treasure found in the primary school field unveiled a new chapter in history about how society transacted in the VOC era hundreds of years ago.
Transactions Using Gold and Silver Coins
For context, since the Hindu-Buddhist Kingdom era, society has transacted using currency, not barter or goods exchange.
Erwin Kusuma in Uang Indonesia: Sejarah dan Perkembangannya (2021) notes that ancient Javanese society commonly used gold coins for trade transactions in markets. However, gold coin transactions were used on a large scale, such as land sales, not market transactions.
Then, when the VOC arrived, transactions using coins continued. However, the VOC standardised the currency.
The Bank Indonesia Museum states that the trading company sought to replace all foreign currencies circulating in the Nusantara. From there, the VOC issued various types of currency for trade transactions.
There were rijksdaalder, dukat, stuiver, gulden, and doit. All were round and flat coins made of gold, silver, copper, to nickel. Of all the coins, doit perhaps left the strongest impression in the minds of Indonesian society.
Because the naming of the VOC-era doit coin gradually became a substitute term for money in Indonesian society, namely ‘duit’. The existence of coins became even more widespread after the VOC produced them domestically.
From there, all society used those coins for transactions. However, the VOC era ended when the trading company collapsed in 1799.
Afterwards, new currency circulated, popularised by the Dutch East Indies government. Meanwhile, VOC-era currency became history.
Some became buried historical treasures of high value. This is like what Nuryasin found 33 years ago.