LUENEBURG, Germany An amateur archaeologist in Germany has found a historic collection of gold coins worth around 45,000 euros, probably buried during the Nazi era or shortly after World War Two, experts said on Wednesday. 
 
 Armed with a metal detector, Florian Bautsch found 10 coins in a hollow under a tree near the northern town of Lueneburg and professionals then excavated another 207. 
 
 They are of French, Belgian, Italian and Austro-Hungarian origin and date from 1831 to 1910. 
 
 Two aluminum seals featuring swastika crosses, eagles and the words "Reichsbank Berlin 244" were also discovered under the field with the coins. Germany's central bank was called "Deutsche Reichsbank" during the Nazi era and an analysis of the metal in the seals suggests they were made some time after 1940. 
 
 "This was all found under a pine tree that is around 50 years old ... and that must have grown afterwards ... so we know it must have been buried in the last days of the war or shortly afterwards," Mario Pahlow, a local archaeologist, told Reuters. 
 
 He and other archaeologists analyzing the trove say it was probably part of the Deutsche Reichbank's gold reserves and the fact the coins were buried suggested they were stolen. 
 
 Edgar Ring, an archaeologist at Museum Lueneburg, said the culprit was probably an insider. 
 
 "It was either someone who worked at the Reichsbank and had access, which means it could have only been someone who was there in an official role, or somebody who took advantage of the situation when the coins were being transported," he said. 
 
 The coins have a diameter of 21 millimeters and weigh 6.45 grams each. Pahlow said the coins, which are in "excellent condition" and have not yet been claimed, were worth between 190 and 210 euros each. 
 
 "It's hard to work out what these coins were worth back then using today's standards but it's reasonable to assume that you could buy a very good suit, including a waistcoat and top hat, with one of these coins," he said. 
 
 The trove of coins, which was found last October but has only been made public now that archaeologists have reported it to the lost property office and conducted research, will be displayed at Museum Lueneburg on Sunday. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Reuters TV; Editing by Tom Heneghan) 

 Symbol of hate: Nazi swastikas in Nuremberg in 1933 
 
 A treasure hunter has found two bags of Nazi gold buried in a German field. 
 
 The haul of 217 coins was wrapped in tar paper embossed with the swastika and Third Reich eagle, plus the word “Reichsbank”. 
 
 They were found at the edge of a field, where it is thought they were left in the chaotic final days of the war. 
 
 The gold coins were found near Luneburg - now the scene of the ongoing trial of former SS guard Oskar Groening, charged with assisting in the murders of 300,000 Jews at Auschwitz in 1944. 
 
 The 217 coins in two bags were probably part of a much larger stash of loot hidden by Reichsbank officials. 
 
 Nazi treasure still fires the imagination in Germany and thousands of people spend huge amounts of time searching for lost paintings, gold, jewels and cash. 
 
 Getty Final chaos: A bombed out and bullet-scarred Nazi HQ in Berlin 
 
 Authorities did not specify the age of the coins or their worth, but described them as "significant." They will be displayed to the public and press next Tuesday. 
 
 The finder, a licensed treasure hunter, will probably receive a small reward for his discovery. He contacted local officials soon after he discovered the hoard. 
 
 The Reichsbank, Germany's central bank during the Third Reich, dispersed vast quantities of gold, silver and money in secret hiding places across Germany as Berlin crumbled under the assault of Allied bombers. 
 
 A month ago it was revealed American soldiers found a £25m cache of gold at a clandestine Reichsbank vault hidden in a post office in the small town of Plauen. 
 
 It was later shipped back to the USA.
– For anyone with a metal detector collecting dust in the closet, this story should keep the dream alive. A man in northern Germany turned up a gold coin in October while searching near a pine tree at a field's edge. Further searching yielded nine coins, at which point Florian Bautsch, 31—described by the Local as an "amateur archaeologist" and "certified metal detectorist" and by the Irish Mirror as a "licensed treasure hunter"—called in the professionals. Archaeologists ultimately found an additional 207 gold coins that archaeologist Edgar Ring says he is confident once belonged to the Nazi-era Reichsbank. A second archaeologist tells Bild, "We believe that the coins were hidden in the last days of World War II or shortly after the war there." Experts were able to date the coins, which themselves were minted between 1831 and 1910, thanks in part to two seals that had formerly been part of the two pouches that held the coins; those pouches no longer exist. Chemical analysis dated the seals—which are made of aluminum, per Reuters—and other remnants to between 1940 and 1950. The seals featured a swastika, imperial eagle, and the words "Reichsbank Berlin 244." The Mirror puts forth the theory that the gold was left there "in the chaotic final days of the war" and notes that the Reichsbank hid coins throughout the country as Berlin came under attack. The gold is believed to be worth about $50,000, though Bautsch's finder's fee will be only about $2,700. They were turned up near Luneburg, where the "last Auschwitz trial on Earth" just came to its end. (Read the tragic tale of the man who wouldn't salute Hitler.)