A picture is circulating over the social media, in which a broken container is lying covered in mud and filth filled with gold coins. The sources said, the coins were discovered by a labourer while digging a canal near Wular lake in Jammu and Kashmir. Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found in its research that the news is completely false and the actual news was recovered from sources. A Facebook user shared the image and captioned “#Khaazaana #Mil #Gaya As per reports One Labour from Baramulla area found Golden & silver coins while digging a canal near wular lake on Saturday,13 Feb, 2021. Around 30 Labourers were working for the project.”

AFWA has confirmed that the viral picture is not even from India. The picture is from but the Italian town of Como. It shows gold coins of the late Imperial era which were found by labourers during the renovation of an old theatre. “The Irish Sun” website published this on September 10, 2018. As per this report, 1,500-year-old gold coins stuffed inside an urn were found by labourers during renovation of a theatre in Italy. Another report published by “Australian Broadcasting Corporation” on September 14, 2018, says that hundreds of Roman gold coins were found on the banks of the famous Como lake during excavation of the historic Cressoni Theatre.

On September 07 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. 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.