🥇 BANNER Roman Hoarde found 300+ Coins and counting

[Westfront]

With my last post http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/533136-couple-nice-roman-coins.html the story started.
We detected around a large Roman settlement to get what's left after years of detecting the site. We were out on a neighboring field gridding a loose pattern hoping for a hotspot somewhere between the scatter of broken roof tiles. My buddy started at one end of the field, i started where the scatter of tiles ended towards him. At one point he called over with a coin. About a minute later he had two more and i started digging coins also. We realized soon the coins were in a small stripe about 15' wide and 100' long inline with the plowmarks.

We had to stop because time was running out and returned a day later to recover more coins. Till this point we had about 150 coins in the pouch and it was time to call the Archies in. Then the machine started.... Meeting on site with my Archie and their surveyor, several telephone calls, meet the landowner to get his ok for excavating, renting a small excavator, lump together a team and so on.
Today we met early in the morning in the field and started removing the first 4" of soil in the area where the most coins were found.

There we got another 40 or so. That was when we stopped packing them in zip lok bags one by one.
Then the next 4" were ground of. More coins. Every coin was GPSed now because we nearly hit plow depth. Here is a pic of the pattern of coins. You can see how they lay in a line. Count was 137 then.

Unfortunately coin finds started drying out.

Next was a base grade to get a better look of the area.

Thats when the outlines of a burial with side laying grave goods chamber turned up. White line is the burial, yellow is the chamber and red circle is where i found the bronze bell.

The bell in situ.

After that all was recorded and what was left of the burial was recovered. Everything inside was spread by the plow a long time ago so only 1" to 2" of the bottom were still there. No bones or ash, no grave goods other than the bell were found.
Wild guess is that a leather bag was hidden at the grave and never picked up. Coins are all Barborous Tetricus I and II 271-273 AD. Count till this evening is close to 300 coins. Tomorrow we'll get some more.... Sorry for not having a pic with all coins together. All went in bags fast....

 

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[Silver Searcher]

Well done on a great find mate, well deserved after all the years of hard work in the hobby.

SS

 

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[CRUSADER]

Well done on a great find mate, well deserved after all the years of hard work in the hobby.

SS

Yeap, you should see the pots & glass bottle they dug!

 

[Westfront]

Well done on a great find mate, well deserved after all the years of hard work in the hobby.

SS

Thanks Colin! We had a good season with many fields open and were out every minute we could spend. Reward came in the last days we had for detecting! Next week this field is planted...

 

[saftgeek]

Wow! I can't imagine having that much history around... One of these days, one of these days...

 

[cgdigger]

Where do I find me one of those coin sniffing dogs? Maybe they could be trained to sniff out bottles as well?

 

[Ahab8]

Nice to come on here and see such a legendary find! You guys are great ambassadors to the hobby and an example of how all should conduct themselves. At the end of the day this historical documentation is what's most important. I hope this is not your last early hoard and I hope the next is silver or gold. But you will always have this experience to cherish. Great job

 

[CRUSADER]

Nice to come on here and see such a legendary find! You guys are great ambassadors to the hobby and an example of how all should conduct themselves. At the end of the day this historical documentation is what's most important. I hope this is not your last early hoard and I hope the next is silver or gold. But you will always have this experience to cherish. Great job

well said.

 

[JerseyDigger19]

Amazing dig! The bell is spectacular! Thanks for sharing this incredible story!

 

[Ahab8]

well said.

It seems quite obvious Cru that there's been a real effort on both sides to work together which makes perfect sense in my mind. Those relationships in the states seem much harder to forge. I did meet a young female archaeologist locally who metal detects and believes we should all respect eachother and work together. She openly admits that much of the old guard of archies looks at us in a negative light. They don't realize that some of us really care and have lots of knowledge about the sites and finds. I really hope her line of thinking is what starts to develop and we can forge some of these relationships. There's some huge trust issues right now in most cases. I'm hoping she and I can start some sort of dialog.

 

[CRUSADER]

It seems quite obvious Cru that there's been a real effort on both sides to work together which makes perfect sense in my mind. Those relationships in the states seem much harder to forge. I did meet a young female archaeologist locally who metal detects and believes we should all respect eachother and work together. She openly admits that much of the old guard of archies looks at us in a negative light. They don't realize that some of us really care and have lots of knowledge about the sites and finds. I really hope her line of thinking is what starts to develop and we can forge some of these relationships. There's some huge trust issues right now in most cases. I'm hoping she and I can start some sort of dialog.

What has not been said is Westfront is only the 2nd person in Germany since the Laws changed several years ago to declare Treasure - says a lot.

 

[Westfront]

Nice to come on here and see such a legendary find! You guys are great ambassadors to the hobby and an example of how all should conduct themselves. At the end of the day this historical documentation is what's most important. I hope this is not your last early hoard and I hope the next is silver or gold. But you will always have this experience to cherish. Great job

Thanks Ahab and you're right, documentation of the finds is more important than the find.
I don't know if i make it to another (nice) hoarde. This one took 32 years of detecting...

It seems quite obvious Cru that there's been a real effort on both sides to work together which makes perfect sense in my mind. Those relationships in the states seem much harder to forge. I did meet a young female archaeologist locally who metal detects and believes we should all respect eachother and work together. She openly admits that much of the old guard of archies looks at us in a negative light. They don't realize that some of us really care and have lots of knowledge about the sites and finds. I really hope her line of thinking is what starts to develop and we can forge some of these relationships. There's some huge trust issues right now in most cases. I'm hoping she and I can start some sort of dialog.

All you can do is talking, build trust and also take a step back from your own propossession. Things changed here with younger Archeologist climbing up the ladder. My contact is also a woman and it was a risk for her getting the detectorists into the boat. I feel great to give her something back with reporting an important find. It will help her to proove that working together is good for both parties. (She is high on the ladder, but still a couple hardliner above her.)

 

[Westfront]

What has not been said is Westfront is only the 2nd person in Germany since the Laws changed several years ago to declare Treasure - says a lot.

Wait a second Cru, not for all Germany. It's the second declared treasure in our state. It's partly different to the laws you have in UK. It's not like: If it's older than (say) 300 years and made from precious metal it is treasure. More like: If it has significant value in terms of history it can be declared treasure. The Bronze Age axe found by Rebbel probably made treasure here, in Bavaria most likely not. A coin hoarde hidden in times when Germanic tribes attacked Romans in our area is treasure, even with "low value" bronze coins. The Archies don't really know how to handle treasure act because of the relatively new law. We'll see how it works when time pass by.

 

[Cassews]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!

 

[A2coins]

Hey you!!!! This is my dream what are you doing in it!!!! Good job I'm very happy for you this is what its about... Thanks for sharing you treasure keeps me going Tommy

 

[Aureus]

Absolutely amazing! No words! Huge congratulations!

 

[Westfront]

Thanks again folks!
A short update, with the coins detected when the excavation was filled the total is now 430 bronze coins. I still think many more will turn up over the next years after plowing. Archies told the average Roman coin hoards found here were in the 300-500 coin range. With 430 found and more still in the ground it looks like this is one of the bigger hoards.

 

[Garrett424]

Amazing finds.
You guys have lots of ancient treasures over there. I'm just a bit envious.

 

[DieterD]

What a dream for me. Good hunting to you . Congrats

 

[The Rebel]

Amazing find of a lifetime & so happy for you! Why would there be a lone burial or perhaps there are more in the field? I'm assume there was a roman village near by. I'm not really familiar with Roman history so forgive my ignorance.

 

[Westfront]

Amazing find of a lifetime & so happy for you! Why would there be a lone burial or perhaps there are more in the field? I'm assume there was a roman village near by. I'm not really familiar with Roman history so forgive my ignorance.

There may be more in that area, but they are left alone because they are below plow depth and not at risk. It's probably the burial ground of one of the bigger Roman farms here. The whole field will be protected soon and no digging and deep plowing allowed.

Another update to the find:
The coins are currently in process of restoration and conservation. Unusual, because most finds need months to see an Archie close. Beeing "Treasure" is also confirmed and will make "Find of the Month" what means it gets a place in the State Museum and will be showed in the foyer of the museum for a month too.