Gold treasure
Did you know ...
... that Alfons Nelissen took a secret to his grave? In his wife's parental home, where he lived with his large family, he hid a metal box containing foreign coins. It is estimated that it contained several hundred, mostly French and English, gold coins. Each one worth some 300 euros. According to his grandson, Gaston, this gold treasure was worth 100,000 euros. A big, fat piggy bank! Alfons was a frugal man. And, back then, it was not uncommon for people to want to put something away for a rainy day. They secured their old age by buying gold coins. Only Alfons had hidden his gold treasure away in his lavish home. Apparently, he hid it a bit too well, as it turned out.
Did he forget where he had hidden it? Or did he forget to tell his wife and seven children? No one in the family knew that he was hiding a gold treasure. Until, after his death and after his children had gone on to build their own lives, the house was razed to the ground. During the demolition work, Bouwbedrijf Keulen from Lanaken found the chest with the golden coins in the cellar under the house. The contractor had bought the land from the Nelissen family. What the owner finds in the ground apparently remains his property. The Nelissen family thought otherwise. They thought they were entitled to the gold treasure.
... that Alfons Nelissen took a secret to his grave? In his wife's parental home, where he lived with his large family, he hid a metal box containing foreign coins. It is estimated that it contained several hundred, mostly French and English, gold coins. Each one worth some 300 euros. According to his grandson, Gaston, this gold treasure was worth 100,000 euros. A big, fat piggy bank! Alfons was a frugal man. And, back then, it was not uncommon for people to want to put something away for a rainy day. They secured their old age by buying gold coins. Only Alfons had hidden his gold treasure away in his lavish home. Apparently, he hid it a bit too well, as it turned out.
Did he forget where he had hidden it? Or did he forget to tell his wife and seven children? No one in the family knew that he was hiding a gold treasure. Until, after his death and after his children had gone on to build their own lives, the house was razed to the ground. During the demolition work, Bouwbedrijf Keulen from Lanaken found the chest with the golden coins in the cellar under the house. The contractor had bought the land from the Nelissen family. What the owner finds in the ground apparently remains his property. The Nelissen family thought otherwise. They thought they were entitled to the gold treasure.
