A metal detector signal led to a remarkable discovery in a field near Wesseling, Germany: 934 Roman silver coins weighing 6.8 pounds (3.1 kilograms) and spanning nearly 300 years of Roman history. Unearthed by licensed amateur metal detectorist Oliver Riedl, the hoard is the largest collection of coins from the reign of Emperor Hadrian ever found in Germany and the fifth largest known worldwide from his era.
Riedl was searching the field when his detector began signaling. He dug up one silver coin, then another and another. After recovering 15 coins, however, the signals showed no sign of stopping.
“It was clear to me that there was something bigger buried here,” Riedl said.
He immediately contacted the authorities, allowing archaeologists from the Nideggen branch of the Rhineland Regional Association’s Office for Archaeological Heritage Management to take over the excavation. What followed far exceeded expectations. Rather than simply removing the coins one by one, archaeologists carefully lifted the surrounding block of soil and transported it to the restoration workshop at the LVR State Museum in Bonn.
There, specialists X-rayed the block before painstakingly separating it layer by layer. Their careful approach revealed fragments of the ceramic container that had originally held the treasure, along with remnants of straw used to line it. Centuries of agricultural activity had eventually broken apart the pot and scattered the coins through the surrounding soil, but the archaeological team was able to locate and recover all 934 denarii.
The oldest coin was minted in 148 BCE, during the Roman Republic. The youngest dates to 124 or 125 CE, during the reign of Hadrian, who ruled from 117 to 138 CE. Most of the coins date from the reigns of the Flavian emperors between 69 and 96 CE, including numerous coins bearing the profiles of emperors such as Domitian.
That extraordinary age range offers more than a glimpse at Roman history. It demonstrates that silver coins could remain useful as currency for generations. When the hoard was buried during the second quarter of the second century CE, the oldest coin was already more than 270 years old — yet apparently still considered valuable and valid for payment.
And it represented a considerable fortune. A typical Roman legionary earned about 300 denarii annually, with roughly half withheld for provisions and equipment. To accumulate 934 denarii, a soldier would have needed to save essentially all of his available income for about six years.
Why someone buried such a fortune and never returned for it remains unknown. Perhaps the owner was protecting savings in an era without modern banks, or perhaps circumstances prevented the treasure from ever being reclaimed.
The hoard was presented to the public in Bonn on September 22, coinciding with the annual meeting of the West and South German Association for Archaeology, which brought approximately 300 archaeologists from across Germany together in the city. Visitors can now see the remarkable silver collection at the LVR State Museum in Bonn — nearly 1,900 years after someone carefully hid it in the ground.
Credits: Images courtesy of ©Marcel Zanjani/LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage in the Rhineland.