You might imagine finding some old pennies, but who would ever expect to discover a shiny gold coin buried within the oldest part of an American City? But an old gold coin was indeed found, and it’s worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The Main Plaza area of downtown San Antonio, TX has been experiencing the pains of construction for several months now. Construction crews are working on a revitalization project in Main Plaza, which is the oldest area in San Antonio.

The area is so old, in fact, that it’s been declared a historical site. That means archaeologists are involved too - in order to make sure historical artifacts and evidence isn’t destroyed by the construction.

Construction has halted for periods as archaeologists found items they needed to retrieve, categorize and protect. Several days ago they were actually working in an old trench that used to be a latrine when, bingo, they found an old gold coin dated 1855. Someone was likely doing "their business" in the latrine back in the day and either lost it unknowingly or the coin fell where they didn’t want to retrieve it.

The coin may have been "small change" back then, but now it could be worth $45,000.

For a very interesting telling of this story with many more details, check out this WOAI.com video.