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Amateur archaeologists discovered a gold coin in a field, leading to a full-fledged search that revealed 141 Roman-era gold coins from the late fourth century A.D.
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The coins stretch across the reign of nine emperors, each with their face depicted on the gold “solidi.”
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The rarest coins come from Emperor Eugenius, who had a short-lived two-year reign.
“Navigating a minefield” is a phrase often used metaphorically, but archaeologists in Luxembourg took it to a quite literal degree, working among buried World War II-era bombs as they (the archaeologists, not the bombs) dug up 141 pure gold Roman coins known as solidi from the base of a Roman fortified watchtower.
With excavation now complete after four year of work, researchers plan to study a hoard that features gold coins minted between 364 A.D. and 408 A.D. depicting the profiles of nine different Roman emperors who reigned during that time.
“This is a major archaeological discovery, as it is extremely rare to be able to study in its entirety an ancient monetary deposit in its archeological context,” according to a translated statement from Luxembourg’s National Institute for Archaeological Research, the group responsible for the excavation. “Its examination will make it possible to understand the motivations which led to its burial.”
The effort started when amateur archaeologists discovered a single gold coin in a nearby field in Holzthum village in north Luxembourg. Experts then came in and found the base of a burgus, a fortified military observation tower from the Roman era, which set off further alarms that this spot might have some more secrets to be found.
Over the next four years, which included working with the Luxembourg Army’s Bomb Disposal Service because of World War II-era munitions in the area, the team found 141 solidi with nine different Roman emperors on the face of the coins. The haul totals an estimated $322,000 in value. The rarest find included three coins with the depiction of Emperor Eugenius, as he reigned just two years from 392 to 394 A.D.
Eugenius was emperor of the Western Roman Empire but was installed by a military officer following the mysterious hanging of his predecessor, Emperor Valentinian II. The unique circumstances put question marks around his reign from the start and Theodosius I, the Eastern Roman Emperor, never fully afforded him power. Eugenius, who did have some support from the west, started to welcome back pagan traditions and that led to a conflict with Theodosius, which culminated in the Battle of the Frigidus. That battle ended with the execution of Eugenius, thus ending the need to make any additional coins bearing his likeness.
The short-lived reign of the Eugenius amid that power struggle makes any coins with his face uniquely rare, giving the 141-coin hoard a trio of signature pieces.
The use of solidi came as the standardized monetary system employed by Byzantine emperors near the beginning of the fourth century A.D. The solidi use continued to spread and remained largely unchanged through the 10th century. The name itself comes from the Latin for “solidus,” meaning solid, which referred to the coin’s set weight of gold at 4.5 grams (0.16 ounces).
The 1,700-year-old coins discovered in Luxembourg offer an intriguing look into the cultural shifts of the Roman Empire, both its cultural monetary uses and its succession of emperors. With the field work carefully completed, researchers will now focus on mining more information from the coins themselves in a laboratory with the goal of publishing additional details in a future journal study.
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