Germany’s largest coin hoard from the reign of the emperor Hadrian has been discovered near Wesseling, on the Rhine river just south of Cologne.

The first silver denarii were discovered by metal detectorist Oliver Riedl. After recovering 15 coins, Riedl realized there was something much bigger underground when his machine kept beeping. He stopped what he was doing and notified the Rhineland Regional Association’s Office for Archaeological Heritage Management (LVR-ABR).

Archaeologists from the Nideggen branch of the LVR-ABR were immediately dispatched to excavate the find site. The team unearthed more than 900 additional denarii, for a total of 934 coins weighing 3.1 kilos (6.8 lbs) of silver. In terms of buying power, that’s more than three times the yearly pay of a Roman legionary. Since half of their salary was deducted to pay for their food and equipment, however, a legionary would have had to save every denarius for six years to amass a hoard of this size.

The most recent coin in the hoard was minted in 124/125 A.D., which marks the likely date of its burial as during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117–138 A.D.). Almost all of the coins pre-date his reign, however. They were minted during the Flavian dynasty (69-96 A.D.), so archaeologists believe the hoard was largely collected around 100 A.D. and then buried two or three decades later with that one contemporary coin.

The oldest coin in the hoard was minted by the Roman Republic in 148 B.C., so it was almost 300 years old when it was buried. Even the oldest and most heavily worn coins were still valid when they went underground. One bears a countermark confirming that it retained the value of a silver denarius despite its many decades in circulation.

During the excavations, a concentration of numerous coins quickly became apparent. To better examine the find, it was recovered as a block and transported to the restoration workshop of the LVR State Museum in Bonn. There, the block of earth containing the coins was first X-rayed. This allowed valuable insights to be gained before the coins were unearthed. Fragments of a ceramic pot and remnants of straw were also found. “The coins were probably originally buried in a pot lined with straw,” says Rahel Otte. However, years of agricultural activity destroyed the container, and the coins were scattered in the soil. “But we were able to find and recover all the coins during our investigations.”

The hoard has now gone on display at the LVR State Museum in Bonn where it is being presented to the 300 archaeologists from all over Germany who are currently in town for the annual conference of the West and South German Association for Archaeological Research.

A hoard of Roman silver coins has been discovered in Tofta on the Swedish island of Gotland. They range in date from the late 1st century to the late 2nd century A.D., but likely didn’t reach Gotland until the 4th century. The deposit includes one gold finger ring in a style typical of the mid-5th century.

Gotland’s location in the middle of the Baltic Sea made it strategically important for trade and military purposes. The earliest known fortifications on Gotland date back to 3rd century B.C., and since the 19th century the Swedish Armed Forces have had a significant presence in Gotland. The find site is next to the Tofta Shooting Range, a vast area of 2,700 hectares used for field exercises and weapons testing.

Archaeologists have been investigating the site in advance of planned expansion of the Gotland Regiment. Previous excavations uncovered the remains of four ancient farm buildings. The current dig revealed remains of two more structures within the same complex. The coins were found outside one of the two buildings.

The hoard consists of 45 silver denarii coins in the hoard were minted during the reigns of five emperors — Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus — and four empresses — Sabina, Faustina I, Faustina II and Lucilla. They are heavily worn from centuries of use, evidence they had been in active circulation for more than a century before they made their way to Gotland.

Bones found in one of the houses were radiocarbon dated and the results found they date to the 5th century. Between the carbon-14 dates and the dating of the gold ring type, archaeologist believe the hoard was buried around 450 A.D.

A group of 11 Celtic silver coins has been discovered under a playing field in Singen, central Germany. The coins are about 2,000 years old and exceptionally rare. The barely double-digits hoard is the largest one of from the period ever discovered in Thuringia.

The coins emerged in an archaeological survey of the former sports field in advance of construction of a new fire station. The first individual finds were unearthed in July and August of last year when construction was being overseen by archaeologists. A targeted excavation at the site last month uncovered the rest. The excavation revealed that the 11 coins were a single deposit that had been scattered by later agricultural work.

The original container has vanished. Researchers found no pottery fragments, leading them to believe the coins were probably kept in something made from organic material, perhaps a small pouch or another container that decayed long ago.

The coins were no longer lying where their owner had placed them. Centuries of ploughing had dragged them across an area measuring roughly 5.8 by 1.5 meters. Careful documentation nevertheless allowed archaeologists to reconstruct their relationship and distinguish the hoard from later objects found nearby.

The 11 coins are all silver quinarii of the Prague type. Only around 80 of them are known to have been found in Thuringia, so this single deposit is not only the largest, but contains more than 10% of the total Prague-type quinarii in the state.

Numismatists believe the quinarii may have been locally produced in the Gotha region just northwest of Singen. The find site is located between Gotha and a concentration of Celtic settlements, including Steinsburg which was one of the most important Celtic settlements in the region and was known for its craft production.

That makes the Singen hoard more than an isolated cache of silver. Its location adds another point to the archaeological map, helping researchers trace possible connections between production centers, settlements and the routes along which coins and other goods moved through Iron Age Thuringia.

The Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology says the discovery has significantly expanded what is known about these regional connections.