Discovery of Rare Roman and British Coin Hoard in Netherlands
Metal detectorists in the Netherlands discovered a rare hoard of 404 Roman and British coins dating from Biblical times, marking a unique archaeological find in Utrecht.
Two metal detectorists uncovered a significant cache of coins dating back to Biblical times, according to a press release from the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
The discovery, which was made public on January 27, consists of 404 silver and gold coins, combining both Roman and British coins, thus marking a unique find.
The metal detectorists, Gert-Jan Messelaar and Reinier Koelink, found the coins in Bunnik, located in the province of Utrecht, during autumn 2023. Although the Dutch government has possessed the coins for several months, the details were not disclosed to the public until recently.
Among the coins, 42 are British and referred to as "staters," minted between 5 B.C. and 43 A.D., made from gold, silver, and copper. Notably, the name of Cunobeline, a British king who reigned from 9 to 43 A.D., is inscribed on some of the coins.
A total of 288 coins are Roman and were minted between 200 B.C. and 47 A.D. The youngest of these coins can be traced back to Emperor Claudius, with some having never been circulated.
According to the translated press release, "In total, 72 Roman gold coins (aurei, singular aureus) were found, dating from 19 B.C. to 47 A.D." It continues, "Two of the gold coins were minted with the same stamp and were unused -- they show no signs of wear. The owner apparently received them from a stack of freshly minted coins."
Experts believe that these coins were likely brought back to Bunnik by returning Roman soldiers from Britannia after their initial conquests: the Roman coins as payment and the British coins as war booty.
The press release emphasized that this discovery "supports the crucial role of the Lower Germanic Limes in the Roman conquest of Britannia," referring to the border of the Roman Empire that separated Germania Inferior and Germania Magna.
As one of the largest archaeological discoveries of its kind in Utrecht, this cache is the only Roman-British coin hoard found in mainland Europe; a similar collection was previously discovered in the United Kingdom.
"These coins form a unique combination of both Roman and British coins, buried in the northern border region of the Roman Empire (the Lower Germanic limes), which at the time ran through the Netherlands," the statement concluded. "Such a Roman-British coin find has never before been made on the European mainland."
