On Tuesday, a hoard of 934 Roman silver denarii weighing 3.1 kg was displayed at the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn. According to the LVR Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments in the Rhineland, the coins were likely deliberately buried in the second quarter of the 2nd century AD.
The find was made by amateur archaeologist Oliver Riedl in a field near Wesseling, south of Cologne: his metal detector kept signaling even after the first coins were found. Riedl contacted the authorities, after which a team of experts immediately arrived at the site and began excavations, during which 934 denarii were found.
The office called the hoard the largest coin treasure ever found in Germany since the time of Emperor Hadrian. It also noted that hoards from the ancient Roman era and other distant periods are not uncommon, but finds on such a large scale for the 2nd century are rare.
State archaeologist and office director Erich Klassen said the motives can only be guessed at: perhaps someone wanted to preserve this money, or perhaps the owner died before he could retrieve it and never passed on information about the hoard. According to Klassen, it is also unclear who exactly ultimately accumulated this fortune.
Researcher Rachel Otte from the office reminded that an ordinary legionary in the Roman army received 300 denarii a year, but about half the sum was withheld for food and equipment. According to her calculation, to accumulate such a hoard, a soldier would have had to save all available income for about six years, and it is difficult to estimate the exact value of the coins at the time of burial.
The Romans controlled the Cologne area from about 39 BC to AD 459. They established a military post there under the commander Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to secure the border along the Rhine, and later it became Colonia Agrippina — present-day Cologne.
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