Researchers in northern Argentina have found German coins that were minted during World War II in the ruins of a remote nature reserve.

This is exciting news to archaeologists that are trying to determine whether the ruined buildings they have encountered were built as a hideout for German Nazi officers.

The researchers doubt that the buildings were actually ever used by fugitive Nazis, as at the time exiled Germans would have had no problem moving freely around in Argentinian towns.

Famous Nazis who fled to Argentina include Adolf Eichmann and Erich Priebke.

Following a local legend that the buildings had been used as a hideout for Martin Bormann, a close aide to Adolf Hitler, the researchers from the University of Buenos Aires said they decided to investigate.

The ruins are located in Teyu Cuare park, an area near the town of San Ignacio in the northern Misiones province.

According to BBC, a researcher named Daniel Schavelzon informed the Argentinian newspaper Clarin that the architecture of the three buildings was markedly different from the other buildings in the region and that their purpose in the middle of a remote nature reserve was a mystery.

Schavelzon said some of the found objects linked the buildings to wartime Germany. They included coins minted in the late 1930s and early 1940s as well as a fragment of Meissen porcelain that was made in Germany.

None of the objects, despite their authenticity, have been linked directly to any Nazi officers.

Schavelzon doubts the legend that Martin Bormann, who was Hitler's private secretary, once lived there.

He points out that DNA tests carried out in 1998 on a skeleton found in Berlin had already proven that Bormann committed suicide in 1945 and did not flee to South America as some people have long speculated.