An ancient coin from Song dynasty Photo: VCG More than 10,000 ancient coins dating back to Song Dynasty (960-1279) were unearthed in a village in Ningxiang in Central China's Hunan Province, the local cultural tourism administration announced on Wednesday.

The coins were discovered by the local villagers in a hole of a pond that was undergoing renovation. Villagers then reported the finding to the county's Cultural Relics Protection Department, which sent personnel to the site and conducted an excavation, according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency. 

After local archaeological experts excavated and cleaned the coins, they discovered that most of the Chinese characters cast on the ancient coins were made during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127).

"The more than 10,000 coins were well preserved and weigh more than 100 kilograms in total. They provide a valuable physical reference for studying the local history," He Dequan, director of the Cultural Relics Department at Ningxiang's Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau, told the Global Times.

According to He, this is the second time that the department has unearthed ancient Song Dynasty coins. He added that the coins may have been buried by wealthy people living in ancient China. "The money was probably buried in the ground by some businessmen during a time of war," said He.