On a cold morning in June 1940, something unbelievable happened in the small Russian village of Meshchera. The sky was gray and cloudy, and people were busy in their gardens and fields. Suddenly, they heard a strange noise from above. It sounded like rain, only louder and sharper.

People looked up. Small, dark shapes were falling from the clouds. At first, no one knew what they were. The objects hit the ground everywhere, bouncing off roofs and landing in the dirt. Children rushed to grab them. Then someone shouted in surprise.

“It’s money! Coins are falling from the sky!”

It sounded impossible, but it was real. Hundreds of old silver coins were falling from the clouds onto the village. For several minutes, coins covered the ground like metal rain. People rushed outside with bags and boxes, grabbing as many coins as they could. Some laughed, while others stood frozen in shock. Everyone wondered the same thing: where did these coins come from?

When the coins stopped falling, people looked at them closely. The coins were very old. Some dated back to the 1500s and 1600s. They showed images of old Russian kings and had ancient writing. The coins were real silver, not fake, but they were dirty and worn, as if they had been buried for centuries.

The village leaders called the police, and government officials came to investigate. They spoke to everyone who saw the coins fall. Every story matched: the coins really did come from the sky. There was no airplane overhead, and no one had thrown them from a building or hill. The coins had just fallen from the clouds.

Scientists arrived to study the mystery. They had many questions. How did old coins end up in the sky? Why did they fall on this village? Where were the coins before that day?

Some scientists thought a strong wind or tornado might have picked up the coins from far away and carried them through the air. They suggested the coins could have been buried somewhere else, then uncovered and swept up by a powerful storm. Tornadoes can sometimes lift heavy things and move them long distances. Supporters of this idea point to stories of storms carrying fish, frogs, or small objects and dropping them far from where they started. So, strong weather might have brought the coins to Meshchera.

Some people thought this explanation made sense. Tornadoes and strong winds can pick up many things and carry them far away. There are stories of fish falling from the sky after being sucked up from lakes, and reports of frogs raining down after storms. So maybe coins could travel through the air, too.

But others did not believe this theory. They argued the coins were too heavy for the wind to carry so far. If a storm had dug up the coins, why weren’t there other things mixed in, like dirt, stones, or wood? Why only coins?

An alternative idea suggested that someone had collected these old coins to hide or sell them, and perhaps tried to transport them by airplane or another flying machine. Some believed an accident caused the coins to fall from the sky. However, this theory faces significant challenges. In 1940, very few people in Russia owned airplanes, particularly in rural areas like Meshchera. There were no reports of missing coins, plane trouble, or emergency landings during that time. Moreover, if coins had fallen from a plane, they would likely have been dispersed over a much larger area, not concentrated in one spot.

These issues make the airplane theory improbable. On the other hand, the storm theory connects more aptly with natural phenomena. If storms lift, planes drop. The storm theory, supported by real instances of storms transporting items like fish or frogs over great distances, while not without its own questions, aligns better with what we know about nature.

Some villagers believed the coins were a gift from God or a sign of good luck. Others thought ghosts or spirits brought them. A few whispered that the coins were cursed and would bring bad luck to anyone who kept them.

The government took most of the coins for museums and research. Some villagers kept a few as souvenirs of that strange day. But no one ever found out the real answer to the mystery.

Even now, more than eighty years later, no one knows for sure where the coins came from or how they ended up in the sky above Meshchera. Many theories have been suggested, from storms to accidents, but none have clear proof. The mystery still fascinates people and reminds us that some things remain unexplained. The money that fell from the sky is still one of Russia’s strangest unsolved mysteries.