A HOMEOWNER couldn't believe his luck when he found bundles of banknotes hidden in the walls in old Nesquik cans.
Toño Piñeiro uncovered a total of six ageing containers in various parts of a house he is renovating in Spain.
Stuffed inside were neatly ironed banknotes totalling more than nine million pesetas, Spain's old currency.
That is the equivalent of more than £47,500.
However his joy was short-lived when he found some of the notes were so old he could no longer exchange them for euros.
The Bank of Spain stopped accepting the older notes and Toño was told he had missed the deadline.
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Around half of his windfall turns out to be worthless.
He told the newspaper El Progreso: "I called them, but they told me that it was no longer possible."
Toño, who works as a builder in Valencia, says he will keep some notes as souvenirs.
He found the Nesquik cans while doing up a ramshackle house he had bought for his retirement in Galicia, in Spain's northwest.
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The house had been abandoned for four decades when Toño, who grew up in the region, spotted it for sale on Facebook.
He found the old jars all over the house while clearing out rubble.
The first two he found contained five million pesetas.
This was before the June 2021 deadline, so he was able to exchange it for 30,000 euros.
"It paid for a new roof", Toño said.
But he found four more cans, also stuffed with banknotes dating from the 1970s.
He said: "I guess they kept these containers to avoid humidity.
"The last ones were somewhat damaged, but the others weren't – they were ironed, it was incredible."
However by then it was too late to exchange them.
He said it sent him into a "rage", but he has since come to accept his bad luck.
Neighbours said the house belonged to Manuel do Xentes, a worker at the Canabal brick factory who was also a cattle dealer.
He died without heirs, leaving his fortune to be discovered in the walls more than 40 years later.
Manuel also used to stuff banknotes in various farm machinery which he then sold without realising, locals said.
As well as keeping some as souvenirs, Toño is considering selling some to collectors.
Architect Pepe Cruz – whose father designed the 1970s notes – has already said he is interested in buying some.
But the value has plunged after the market was flooded with old notes that can no longer be exchanged.
The peseta was phased out after Spain adopted the euro in 2002.
The Bank of Spain reckons some 1.6billion euros worth of old notes and coins were not exchanged before the deadline.
Last week we told how another house renovator found £150,000 in a mystery box behind a wall – but it turned into a nightmare.
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