Tank Collector Strikes Gold In Cold War Military Tank

 

 

 

In a remarkable story that has captured international attention, a British collector has made a multi-million dollar discovery inside a cold war military tank he had purchased over a decade ago.

Nick Mead, a 55-year-old enthusiast of military vehicles from Bovington, Dorset, was going through the insides of a T-54 tank when he uncovered an incredible stash of five gold bars.

Mead had bought the Russian-made tank from an army surplus sale back in 2011 for £30,000 (around $37,000 at the time).

His intention was simply to add the Cold War military tank vehicle to his collection.

However, he never imagined it contained a literal gold mine hidden within.

While inspecting the tank’s fuel tank compartment with a friend recently, they made the astounding find – five gold bullion bars collectively weighing around 18 pounds.

Experts have valued the gold hoard at approximately $2.5 million.

The gold bars bear markings indicating their manufacture took place in the Soviet Union during the Cold War period from the 1940s to the 1980s.

While the exact origins are unclear, historians speculate the gold could have been looted from Germany near the end of World War II or potentially used to pay Soviet troops.

“I was stunned, I couldn’t believe what we were looking at,” Mead recalled about the jaw-dropping moment he first laid eyes on the shiny bullion bars.

He promptly alerted authorities who seized the valuable gold under England’s ownership laws for archaeological finds.

An inquest will determine if Mead can keep a share of the proceeds from the stunning discovery made inside his Cold War military tank.

Regardless of that outcome, he has certainly demonstrated that one person’s scrap can contain another’s treasure, even over six decades later.

The unprecedented tank treasure has historians, collectors, and metal detectorists buzzing with theories about how the Soviet-era gold travelled across Europe to ultimately end up stashed away in a British man’s military vehicle collection until being inadvertently rediscovered all these years later.