

It's not every day you find a fortune hidden under the furniture. Image Credit: PD - Swiss Banker

A man in France who inherited a house was amazed to discover gold coins and ingots hidden all through it.

The man, who had acquired the mansion in Evreux, Normandy, from a deceased relative, was totally oblivious to the secretive fortune until he moved in and started moving things around.His suspicions were first aroused when he discovered a box containing a pile of gold coins screwed on to the underside of a piece of furniture.Another pile of coins was carefully concealed inside an old box used for storing whisky bottles.After spending a lot more time searching the house he eventually uncovered a vast treasure trove of gold coins and ingots which were later valued at a staggering $3.7 million."It was under the furniture, under piles of linen, in the bathroom ... everywhere," he said.According to auctioneer Nicolas Fierfort, there were a total of 5,000 gold pieces and 39 gold ingots which had all been legally purchased at various times throughout the 1950s and 1960s.While the new owner is set to become very rich as a result of the discovery, the tax man is likely to do very well out of it too thanks to France's 45% inheritence tax plus up to 3 years of back taxes.