Lucknow, Aug 20 - Nearly 68 kg of ancient silver coins dating back to 1861 and 1892 were recovered from three men who were arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi district, police said Thursday.

Rajesh Singh, Aditya Sharan and Mukesh Mishra were nabbed Wednesday night from Chetganj locality of Varanasi, about 250 km from here.

'We are still to ascertain where the three got the ancient coins. They are being interrogated in this regard,' police inspector D.B. Rai told IANS on phone.

According to police, the coins carry symbols of Queen Victoria and King George V of Britain.

'We will hand over the coins to the archaeological department for evaluation,' said Rai.