Srinagar: The state Archaeology Department on Wednesday claimed that it had found a treasure-trove of coins, minted almost a thousand years ago, during excavation in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.The department said its expert team recovered a “hoard of ancient copper coins” from a plateau of Nonar village in Budgam’s Khan Sahib area.“During the trial excavation, a hoard of coins was exposed and recovered. The hoard consisting of more than 800 coins were later on collected by the team of the state Archaeology Department,” it said in a statement.It added that the archaeologists who were investigating the findings from Nonar village believe that the coins were from the “11th to 12th century AD, when Yassakara and Lohora dynasties ruled over Kashmir”.The department said the coins had gathered rust and were being chemically treated in the conservation lab of the SPS Museum in the city here.The department further said “this kind of numismatic discovery from Budgam district was very rare”. “It is the first time that the department has recovered such a large hoard of coins from this area,” it said.The state Archaeology Department has made 11 discoveries in the last 13 years, of which four were numismatic findings.