Seven Roman gold coins found at German camp . . .

[Neil]

A geophysicist searching for remnants of a Roman camp in Hiddenhausen, NW has found two coins - and further searches of archeologists resulted in seven more finds.

The nine gold coins are fairly small (weight about 1.5 g, diameter about 20 mm). They are from the first half of the fourth century, minted under Constantine I "the Great", Constantine II, and Constantius II. Eight pieces were minted in Trier, one in Constantinople. One side shows the ruler, the other side shows a goddess or a personification of a virtue.

The geophysicist who cooperated with the LWL archeologists (the LWL is an organization of cities and countries in the Westphalian part of NW) was searching an area of about 450 m² with a metal detector. The Roman camp, expected to be from the 1st/2nd century, has not been found yet. Unfortunately the coins were found relatively close to the surface in an agriculturally used area, so the "context" is lost.

Now nine coins may not really be a major find. But the pieces are very well preserved, almost uncirculated, according to an expert from a museum in Münster. If the LWL can buy the coins (according to the law, the proprietor of the ground and the finder are owners of the finds), it would like to present the pieces in its Archeology Museum in Herne.

[Napoleon]

absolutely superb , i fancy one of them . nice read Neil. merci mon ami . Nordine

[Chef Geoff]

Something not quite right with that story in as far as the size and weight of the coins, a gold Solidus or Aurei of that diameter should be 3 times heavier at around 4.4g.

[Neil]

Thats funny Chef when I first read this I also thought thats a bit on the light side for a gold coin - maybe the weight has been lost in translation.

Be nice to find them

Neil

[legio11augustus]

there in excellent nick