Stash of more than 600 Roman-era silver coins discovered in Turkey; 2100 years old

[MiddenMonster]

Not really up on what Roman coins are worth, but these seem to be from the earlier days of the Roman Empire/Republic so they may have some decent value to them. 651 coins, rough guesstimate of $100/each and $65,100 isn't too shabby. Add on some numismatic value and this find could easily be worth $100K. Who knows? Depending on the rarity they could be worth even more. And here we also have some interesting data that ties in to another thread dealing with longevity of caches. Silver, unlike gold, will tarnish, yet these coins are still legible after more then 2,000 years buried on the bank of a river in a clay jug. That's a decent survival story for the coins. I wonder what happened to the poor sucker who buried them.

Stash of more than 600 Roman-era silver coins discovered in Turkey

 

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[Crow]

Not really up on what Roman coins are worth, but these seem to be from the earlier days of the Roman Empire/Republic so they may have some decent value to them. 651 coins, rough guesstimate of $100/each and $65,100 isn't too shabby. Add on some numismatic value and this find could easily be worth $100K. Who knows? Depending on the rarity they could be worth even more. And here we also have some interesting data that ties in to another thread dealing with longevity of caches. Silver, unlike gold, will tarnish, yet these coins are still legible after more then 2,000 years buried on the bank of a river in a clay jug. That's a decent survival story for the coins. I wonder what happened to the poor sucker who buried them.

Stash of more than 600 Roman-era silver coins discovered in Turkey

Pretty good estimate as we do not know condition of coins that will effect value. I would valued a little higher 200 hundred dollars averaged per coin? After looking at the picture as coins looked in very good condition. However the market is flooded with Roman coins.

Crow

 

[MiddenMonster]

Pretty good estimate as we do not know condition of coins that will effect value. I would valued a little higher 200 hundred dollars averaged per coin? After looking at the picture as coins looked in very good condition. However the market is flooded with Roman coins.

Yeah, I was just guessing as I have no idea what Roman coins are worth. Still, they have to be worth more than their metal value. Of course, these coins are destined for eternity in a museum, at least till the museum goes broke and the government won't support it financially any more. And in a lot of ways, the story as to how the coins got to be where they were found might be more interesting than their value. Several years ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote a book titled "Carnage and Culture" which detailed the evolution of Western Civilization. In it he describes one of the great inventions of Western Civilization as the bank as a safe repository for money. I don't know why the article states that the coins belonged to a soldier, but Hanson writes of soldiers carrying all their money and jewelry with them when they left to fight wars in faraway lands. They didn't have banks, and couldn't even trust their relatives, servants and hired help to not steal from them. So they traveled with their valuables, burying them as needed. Obviously this soldier died or ran into some other hassle that prevented him from digging up his loot. Might have been his life savings, too. And since these coins date to the early part of the Roman Empire, he was a long way from home since they were found on the bank of a river in a Greek city in Turkey. It may be possible to identify a battle that took place in that area and get a pretty good date when the coins were buried. Must have been a secluded bank at the time, too. He sure wouldn't have buried them if people were in the area, and he would have wanted a really good landmark to locate them since he probably wasn't familiar with the area.