Back in the USSR the German graves weren't respected to say the least. The gravesites were usually unmarked. There was a segment of people whose "hobby" was to

Back in the USSR the German graves weren't respected to say the least. The gravesites were usually unmarked. There was a segment of people whose "hobby" was to raid those graves for the various artifacts - daggers, golden teeth, watches and whatever else given buried German soldier had on him, whether of his own or that he may have collected as his "hobby" during the invasion. A soldier had to carry everything with him, and as we know from the documents of the time the gold and watches were naturally among the most frequent loot items carried by them (sidenote: widespread motorized infantry armor has changed the game since then - the Russian BTRs and BMPs in the Chechen war for example were full of rags and electronics that the Russian soldiers looted from the Chechen homes, and in the Ukrainian war it has been computers/laptops/TVs, auto parts, etc.). The soldier in the article seems to have correctly decided that the ancient coins 1. may be more valuable than gold, 2. there is less competition looting local historic museum, and 3. if you're taken prisoner carrying those ancient artifacts you're less likely to be shot as a marauder than with say a pocket full of golden teeth - even today in this article they call him a "numismatics enthusiast".