Category: Treasures

Update on Roman gold coin hoard found in Luxembourg

Ancient, Treasures

The first detailed study of the unique hoard of 141 gold coins from Late Antiquity discovered in Holzthum, Luxembourg, in 2019 has revealed the likely burial date — 395 A.D. — and an unusually large concentration of coins minted in Anatolia. The study has been published in the journal Schweizer Münzblätter and can be read here.

The first 39 coins were found by metal detectorists who reported the finds without attempting to excavate them. Luxembourg’s National Institute for Archaeological Research (INRA) excavated the find site for four years. The process was so slow because the field was full of unexploded ordnance and munitions from World War II. The archaeologists worked side-by-side with explosives experts from the Luxembourg Army Mine Action Service (SEDAL).

When the excavation was complete and the coins safely recovered, it was the end of 2024. Since then, the coins have been conserved, documented and analyzed. Numismatists compared the hoard to others from the same period found in the Benelux countries and western Germany.

Seventeen of the Holzthum coins were struck between AD 364 and 367 at Nicomedia, the major Roman mint on the Sea of Marmara in northwestern Anatolia. They account for 12.2 percent of the 139 regular coins included in the study’s mint-distribution table; the remaining two pieces are fragmentary plated coins.

That concentration is unusual. According to David Wigg-Wolf, David Weis, and Lynn Stoffel, who published the analysis in Schweizer Münzblätter, the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire database contains no comparable regional hoard with such a strong representation from Nicomedia. […]

Emperor Valentinian I was proclaimed Augustus at Ancyra, modern Ankara, in AD 364. The researchers suggest that eastern solidi could have travelled west with Valentinian and his army as they moved first toward Italy and later into Gaul. The Holzthum coins therefore offer a possible material trace of money moving thousands of kilometres with the machinery of the Roman state.

Coins struck in Constantinople between 383 and 388 A.D., and at Sirmium between 394-395 A.D. may have also have moved west with Roman troops after Theodosius I’s defeat of Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus on the border between what are now Italy and Slovenia in 394 A.D. There are three Eugenius coins in the hoard, which are very rare because he only ruled the West for two years.

The two plated coins were also investigated. Researchers identified them as the RESTITVTOR REIPVBLICAE type. One was an ancient imitation, the other has a dark surface that suggests high quantities of solver or tin. Based on the portrait style, one was probably an ancient imitation. Another coin has an unusually dark surface and may contain substantial quantities of silver or tin rather than fine gold, although researchers have not yet carried out the metal analysis required to confirm its composition.

Finland’s largest Viking-era silver coin hoard found

Medieval, Treasures

First Denmark, now Finland. It’s a banner week for record-breaking Viking silver hoards. A massive silver coin hoard has been discovered near the Sysmä church village in southern Finland. It is the largest Late Iron Age coin hoard ever found in Finland.

The first coins were discovered by metal detectorist Kalle Lappinen on September 3rd. He reported the find to the regional museum and archaeologist Esko Tikkala of Lahti City Museums excavated the site the next day. He and his team recovered thousands of silver coins, silver fragments, a silver bracelet, silver clasp and one silver bead. The total silver weight is approximately 4.5 kilos (just shy of 10 lbs).

The coins have yet to be cleaned, documented and counted, but there’s no question this hoard establishes a new record. The previous record-holder, found in Nousiainen in 1895, contains 1,700 coins and small objects, and weighs a total of 2.2 kilos.

The hoard is also exceptional because of what it was buried in: a pair of birch bark containers. They were filled with coins and silver and buried 18 inches under the surface about 40 feet away from each other. Remnants of the birch bark have survived, which is very rare in Finnish soil.

Archaeologists are now working on separating, cleaning, counting and identifying all of the coins. The birch bark remains are also being studied in the hope they will provide more information about the origins and burial of the hoard.

Largest Viking hoard in Denmark found in back yard

Medieval, Treasures

The largest hoard of Viking silver ever discovered in Denmark has been found by a homeowner clearing his backyard to install a new patio in Rebild. The hoard contains 18.5 kilos (41 lbs) of silver, almost triple the weight of silver in the second-largest Viking hoard, the Terslevskat, which weighs 6.5 kilos (14 lbs). The coins found date it to the 10th century and the composition of the hoard sheds light on the silver economy of the Viking Age.

The finder first encountered some loose objects and clay potsherds when removing weeds and stones to clear space for a new tile patio. He dug in the soil with his hands and pulled out a sequence of metal artifacts. They had fallen out of a clay vessel that still contained a heavy concentration of objects and fragments. Objects recovered include silver ingots, bracelets, a Thor’s hammer amulet, 47 coins and assorted pieces of hacksilver.

One notable piece is a silver ingot that has runes engraved on the surface. They read “hutu,” and runeologists interpret it as a personal name, perhaps an owner’s mark. In total there are approximately 700 objects and pieces in the hoard. About 320 of them were still in the pot; the rest were found in the soil right around it.

The coins are of Arab and Anglo-Saxon origin, evidence of Viking Age Denmark’s connections to the Islamic world via trade and England via raids. Most of the contents are ingots, jewelry and hacksilver, with only a few dozen coins out of hundreds of objects, which is unusual for portable wealth. The Islamic dirhams were cut into smaller pieces and used for the purity and weight of the silver.

“When we analyze the weight of the silver objects, the treasure reveals information about the economic practices of the Viking Age. The treasure does not only consist of beautiful objects. Most of them are part of a structured value system by weight,” [Torben Sarauw, cultural heritage manager and archaeologist at the Museums of North Jutland,] says.

Silver bars, jewelry and scrap silver were used as a means of payment and a store of value, where the weight of the silver was decisive. It was therefore often cut into smaller pieces, divided or melted down. The unusually large number of silver bars in the hoard are grouped around specific weight groups, and the same applies to parts of the bracelets and scrap silver. This suggests that the silver was not just randomly put together, but was organized as a significant stock of values.

Hoard of Roman Republic denarii found in central Germany

Ancient, Treasures

A unique group of silver denarii from the time of the Roman Republic has been discovered in Halle, central Germany. There are only five coins, but they are of oversized archaeological significance because this the first documented hoard of Republic-era coins found in Saxony-Anhalt. As there are no coins from the imperial era in the group, archaeologists believe the coins arrived in Halle at the turn of the millennium or just after.

The hoard was discovered in 2025 by metal detectorist volunteer archaeologist Dirk Braungardt. They were grouped in a very small area, but had likely been moved apart from their original deposit cluster by plowing, erosion of animal activity. No remains of a container were found; archaeologists believe they were probably buried in a purse that has decomposed.

The coins are all silver denarii and they were already very old when they reached Germany. The oldest dates to 148 B.C. The remaining four were minted between 82 and 79 B.C. They are heavily worn and were clearly in circulation for many years.

It is striking that four of the five coins were minted within a very short period (82 to 79 BC). Also noteworthy is the presence of three so-called serrati, denarii with a serrated edge – in two cases even bearing graffiti. The purpose of the serration is disputed. It is debated whether it served as proof that the coin was made entirely of silver, as protection against clipping, or purely for decorative purposes. The historian Tacitus describes a predilection for such coins among the Germanic tribes. However, this seems rather unlikely in light of all the Roman coin finds discovered so far in the Barbaricum.

Republican denarii were legal tender and used through the end of the 1st century A.D., although there was no monetary economy in what is now Saxony-Anhalt when the coins likely arrived there, so they didn’t circulate as currency. Instead, they probably reached Halle from long-distance trade, diplomatic gifts, tribute or military loot.

This find is of particular significance for Saxony-Anhalt. To date, only 19 republican coins are known from the present-day territory of the state. Almost all were discovered as individual finds. Imperial-era coins have also been found at more than half of the sites. […]

The find is also of great significance in a supra-regional comparison. While considerably more Republican denarii have been documented in Thuringia and Lower Saxony, both as individual finds and as components of hoards, their density decreases significantly to the northeast.

Medieval jewelry hoard found in Saudi Arabia

Medieval, Treasures

A jewelry hoard of more than 100 pieces made of gold, silver and precious gemstones has been discovered at the ancient pre-Islamic site of Dariyah. It was found in the same archaeological layer as the remains of structures from the 9th century A.D., so that it likely when the hoard was buried.

The objects were buried inside a ceramic vessel. Pieces inside the pot include hand-hammered floral ornaments and triangular pendants inlaid with colored semi-precious gemstones, bead bracelets, gold spacers, fragments of oxidized copper and gold sheets. The largest object is a disc-shaped ornament decorated with inlaid stones of different colors.

Located at the center of the Arabian Peninsula, Dariyah was an important stop on the Basran Hajj pilgrimage route between Iraq and Mecca during the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 A.D.).The same route used by pilgrims was a trade route as well. The high quality of the objects in the hoard, the raw materials, craftsmanship and goldsmithing, attest to the wealth of the people who and passed through Dariyah, be they pilgrims or merchants.

The discovery of the stone foundations, mud brick walls with plastered interiors, hearths, glass in this season’s excavation are evidence that the site wasn’t just for people passing through. There was a permanent settlement here in the 9th century, so the hoard may have been buried by someone who lived there, not just someone passing through.

A stop along such a route could become a small but active center of exchange. The gold jewelry fits that picture. It suggests a settlement connected to movement, money, and cultural contact during the early Islamic centuries.[…]

That wider archaeological setting matters. Without it, the jewelry would be only a beautiful hoard. With it, the discovery becomes evidence for a lived settlement tied to Abbasid-period trade and pilgrimage. […]

The Dariyah gold collection now adds a vivid new chapter to the archaeology of early Islamic Arabia. It shows that the desert routes of the Abbasid world were not empty passages between cities. They were active corridors where faith, commerce, and luxury craftsmanship could meet.