Treasure hunter discovers a rare hoard of 2,000-year-old silver Roman coins worth up to 200,000

[Siwsan]

Treasure hunter discovers a rare hoard of 2,000-year-old silver Roman coins worth up to £200,000 with a metal detector in a farmer's field (but he'll have to split the cash with the farmer)



An amateur historian using a metal detector in a farmer's field has told how he found a once-in-a -lifetime hoard of 2,000-year-old silver Roman coins - worth up to £200,000 ($267,000).

Some of the metal disks were minted during the era Roman general Mark Antony was allied with his lover Cleopatra in Egypt and experts said a find of this size and variety is very rare.

A single coin can sell for up to £900 ($12,000) so fisherman Mike Smale, 35, was astonished when he uncovered one pristine coin after another dating back to 32BC.

The coins will be handed over to the coroner for valuation and then likely sold to a museum, with the profits split between the farmer and Mr Smale.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4932822/Treasure-hunter-discovers-rare-2-000-year-old-Roman-coins.html#ixzz4u4hOpc6t

[heaven05]

1. good for him

hope he and the farmer/families needed the money...

[Ptah]

2. Wait a minute. Are they marked 32 BC?

[Dave Starsky]

6. ...

[Siwsan]

7. Mark Anthony died in 30BC, so......

[zanana1]

3. I love that stuff!

It's history you can see. Thanks for posting this.

[Siwsan]

4. This is the kind of discovery I'd think about, while rambling through the English countryside

The amount of history, the generations of people, the gatherings of communities that have come and gone keeps me fascinated.

I've read a number of stories about people who have been clearing land, or planting a field or garden, and pulled up ancient coins or medieval jewelry. The story about the tree, in Ireland, that blew over in a storm, and the roots had entrapped the skeleton of a young man who had died around 1200 AD is a strong reminder that our past is always with us.

[hibbing]

5. Cool post n/t

[Siwsan]

8. Thanks - I'm a big history buff, so stories like this really fire me up!

[DFW]

9. The story is heavily embellished

Anyone who knows anything about coins will see in half a second that these pieces are anything BUT "pristine." This is exactly the kind of coin that telemarketers use to scam an unsuspecting public on those mass-marketing TV channels. The coins in the photo are of lousy condition--anything BUT pristine. It sounds from the article like someone is preparing to cheat the public with one of those "now you, too, can own a piece of history!" campaigns, when a visit to any reputable coin dealer will get you one of these things for $39.95 or less. If they HAD been in "pristine (i.e new/unused)" condition--not especially rare for many silver coins (denarii) of the era, it would have been interesting. As it is, only the few with rare designs (almost all dies and varieties are documented at this point) are worth in three figures.

Cool to find that many in one place, but the ones in the photo, anyway, are nothing special.

[Siwsan]

10. Well, it was from The Daily Mail, so grains of salt are pretty much required

Still a cool story. I would imagine that many coins, in one place, might have been the result of someone burying them for safekeeping, and then something happening to prevent them from reclaiming them.

[DFW]

11. That happened a thousand times in the ancient world

Here in Germany, during a construction projectrwar about 20 years ago, a steam shovel unearthed a few thousand Roman gold coins minted mostly at one of their northern outpost in what is today's Trier, on the border with Luxembourg. About 20 years ago, I was allowed to view a hoard of 360 (approximately, anyway) gold staters of Alexander the Great, with mint marks attributable to local mints from Amphipolis (in Macedonia itself) to Phoenicia to Memphis in Egypt. Now THAT was a sight to behold! Not one of them was some unique variety that a museum would have wanted, but I got to verify their authenticity before they got sold into the world market. Obviously some hoard buried somewhere that had been intended to pay the officers in his army, and the purser met some untimely end before he could tell someone else where they were buried. I once met a Hungarian guy who I was told unearthed some hoard of rare Byzantine silver coins somewhere in Hungary and sold them himself without declaring them (also about 20 years ago). I don't know the details (he wasn't about to tell me LOL), but he apparently bought himself a million dollar house in Budapest shortly afterward.

[Siwsan]

12. I've lost count of how many temples have been unearthed in the UK

They will go to dig a foundation, and hit mosaic.

I saw a display, once, of the layers of civilization in London. Amazing.

[DFW]

13. Yes, there have been stunning finds throughout the years

I hate to think how many more mosaics and sculptures were destroyed, buried or submerged permanently in the name of progress.