A homeowner has found jars containing around nine million pesetas, which is equivalent to approximately 54,000 euros, whilst refurbishing an old abandoned property that he had bought, but can’t change them as the deadline for exchanging pesetas with the Bank of Spain has passed.
Toño Piñeiro, a resident of Valencia, who bought the old house in Lugo, which is in Galicia in the mainland of Spain, made the astounding discovery during building work, shocked to uncover nine million pesetas in notes wrapped up and put in six Nesquick jars scattered around the building and its outbuildings
However, what seemed to be good luck in finding this massive amount of money has turned into bad luck.
When Piñeiro discovered the first two jars, it was before the Bank of Spain’s deadline to exchange old currency. The property had been empty for almost 40 years before he bought it, and the first amount he found, five million pesetas, he was allowed to change for almost 30,000 euros which came in very handy for building costs.
However, it’s now 20 years since pesetas were replaced by euros, and since July 2021, the Bank of Spain no longer accepts the old currency. This means that the last three jars he found, containing four million pesetas, are worthless.
Piñeiro said he has no intention of throwing the money away, although he admitted that the situation made him very angry. The banknotes were of 5,000 peseta denominations from the year 1979. Those found previously had dated back to the 1950s.
Referring to the jars of money, he suggested: “I guess they kept the money in those containers to avoid humidity. I’m certain that the last ones were somewhat damaged, but the others weren’t, it was unbelievable”, recalling his excitement at the time he found the first two jars.
On all three occasions, he came across the jars full of money by pure chance. This summer, for example, it was while he was throwing debris from the house renovation work into the cellar. “There was a trough where they used to throw the millet and I was going to remove it from there so it wouldn’t spoil. The two containers were there, it was a great surprise”, he said.
It would appear that the home’s previous owner had a habit of stashing cash. One local resident recalled, “the man had a machine to make sulphate. When we opened it to repair it, we saw that it was full of money, but we gave it back to him”.
Piñeiro said he has not ruled out that the house may have more hidden secrets. “I don’t know what to say anymore, I have doubts, but every time I go there I end up getting presents. Maybe at Christmas, when we return from Valencia to continue with the work, more will appear”, he said with a laugh.
Main image: sample photo of an old finca in Spain.
