Ariyalur: De-silting contractor hits pot of copper coins

ARIYALUR: More than 200 copper coins which could be from the Chola period were unearthed by staff deployed by a civil contractor who got the tender to de-silt a lake at Agaram village near Andimadam in Ariyalur district on Monday.

Official sources said on Tuesday that the contractor Nagarajan had entrusted the work to de-silt the Nandhadevan lake in the village for the last three days to his men with the help of an earthmover.

When the driver of the earthmover shifted the scooped up soil from the lake to dump it in another place, the copper coins came to the fore and spilled over the area.  

He immediately alerted the local village administrative officer, who in turn rushed to the spot, collected all the copper coins and a broken pot in which the coin may have been stored and handed them to the Andimadam Tahsildar Kumaraiah for safe custody, sources added.