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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In a field near Cologne, a treasure was found — 934 silver coins from the time of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Lucky is amateur archaeologist Oliver Riedl. As reported by the Rhineland Archaeological Heritage Office, which received the find, this is the largest treasure from the Roman era found in Germany and the fifth largest in the world. The Guardian reports this.
The total weight of the coins found is 3,1 kg. Their market value could be 500 thousand euros. Experts believe the denarii were buried in the second half of the 2nd century. The Cologne area was under the rule of the Roman Empire from 39 BCE to 459 CE. The oldest coins in the hoard date to 148 BCE, and the latest were minted in 125 CE, featuring Emperor Hadrian.
“Of course, we can only speculate about the motives of the people who buried the coins, but most likely they wanted to safeguard their money securely. There were no banks back then,” said archaeologist Erich Klassen, head of the Rhineland Office for the Protection of Archaeological Heritage.
According to scientists, 934 silver coins represented a very substantial sum at the time. A soldier in the Roman army earned about 300 denarii per year, and half of that went to food and equipment. Therefore, to accumulate as many coins as in this hoard, a legionary “had to save all cash over six years”.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Німецький археолог-аматор знайшов найбільший скарб срібних монет часів Римської імперії". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Bagnet.
