A selection of the rare Romain coins discovered in the German mountains – photo from Live science.com
Around 3,000 Roman-era coins have been discovered by a metal detectorist, far from the Roman Empire’s ancient borders. The discovery was made near the town of Herschbach in the Westerwald mountains, 18 kilometres past the Upper Germanic Limes: the border that marked the Roman Empire’s frontier with the Germanic peoples. It’s rare for Roman artefacts to be discovered outside of any frontier.
The metal detectorist reported his find to official government archaeologists in Koblenz, a city located along the Rhine River. Officials then excavated the area and along with the coins, over 200 silver fragments decorated in geometric designs were discovered inside a ceramic pot, hidden amongst rocks.
The coins had deteriorated significantly and so far experts have only been able to identify 100 of them. It is believed the coins date back to the 3rd century. Timo Lang, head of the Koblenz branch office of the State Archaeology in Rhineland-Palatinate and who was in charge of the excavation said “The coins are called Antoniniani and date to between A.D. 241 and 243 until A.D. 269 and 271, so the hoard was probably buried in the early 270’s.”
Lang went on to tell ‘Live Science’ that “most of the coins depict the portrait of either a Roman or Gallic emperor on one side and other images on the back, such as the deities Hercules and Mars. The oldest coins depict Roman emperor Gordianus III (ruled A.D. 238 to 244), and the youngest depict Gallic emperor Victorinus (ruled circa A.D. 269 to 271).” The archaeologists are still unsure what the silver fragments were used for.
