{"id":61915,"date":"2025-02-01T09:57:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T09:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/two-metal-detectorists-in-the-netherlands-stumbled-onto-hundreds-of-looted-coins-from-the-roman-conquest-of-britain\/"},"modified":"2025-02-01T09:57:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T09:57:36","slug":"two-metal-detectorists-in-the-netherlands-stumbled-onto-hundreds-of-looted-coins-from-the-roman-conquest-of-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=61915","title":{"rendered":"Two Metal Detectorists in the Netherlands Stumbled Onto Hundreds of Looted Coins From the Roman Conquest of Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The 404 coins discovered in a muddy field near Bunnik, a village in the Netherlands, in 2023 and 2024
\n National Museum of Antiquities<\/span>
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As they swept over the muddy fields of Bunnik<\/a>, a village in the Netherlands<\/a>\u2019 Utrecht Province that once marked the northern edge<\/a> of the Roman Empire, in 2023, two metal detectorists unearthed a remarkably extensive and diverse haul of coins from the first century C.E.<\/p>\n

Their find<\/a>\u2014a collection of 404 gold and silver coins of Roman, British and North African origin\u2014is the first of its kind unearthed on the European continent, according to a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Gert-Jan Messelaar and Reinier Koelink, the men with the metal detectors, the historic discovery came as something of an accident. They were combing the fields for a local fruit grower\u2019s lost tractor key in Houten<\/a> when they decided to give up and go over to a nearby field in Bunnik, where they had previously found a few coins, reports RTV Utrecht<\/a>\u2019s Bas Teunissen.<\/p>\n

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\"Digging\"

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Reinier Koelink (left) and Gert-Jan Messelaar (right) originally found the coin stash after an unsuccessful hunt for a local farmer’s tractor key.<\/p>\n

Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Koelink made the first find: a golden Celtic coin resting near the surface of the mud. The pair found a few more loose coins\u2014including the largest Roman coin ever found in the province\u2014but their metal detectors would not stop beeping. Messelaar finally stuck his hand into a shallow hole in the ground, where he uncovered a stash of hundreds of coins. \u201cBingo,\u201d he recalls thinking, according to <\/em>RTV Utrecht.<\/p>\n

Koelink and Messelaar used clumps of mud to keep the coins together before bringing the haul back home, where they carefully cleaned, sorted and reported their findings to cultural heritage authorities. Then, they celebrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe opened a bottle of champagne,\u201d Messelaar tells the Guardian<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Daniel Boffey. \u201cYou never find this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"silver

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Silver Roman\u00a0denarii<\/em><\/p>\n

National Museum of Antiquities<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the detectorists\u2019 initial discovery of 381 coins in the summer of 2023, the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency<\/a>, with the help of Koelink and Messelaar, conducted additional excavations in the surrounding areas, finding another 23 coins.<\/p>\n

Now, the grand total of 404 coins will now join a permanent exhibition titled \u201cThe Netherlands in Roman Times<\/a>\u201d at the National Museum of Antiquities<\/a> in Leiden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dated to between 200 B.C.E. and 47 C.E., 360 of the coins are Roman in origin. Of these, 288 are denarii<\/em><\/a>, the standard silver coin, and 72 are aurei<\/em><\/a>, a denser, golden coin that was originally worth 25 denarii<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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A Roman\u00a0aureus<\/em>\u00a0gold coin with a portrait of Emperor Claudius<\/p>\n

National Museum of Antiquities<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many of the Roman coins bear the portrait of Emperor Claudius<\/a>, who reigned between 41 and 54 C.E. One depicts Julius Caesar<\/a>, while another even rarer coin shows the likeness of Juba<\/a>, the ruler of Numidia<\/a>, a kingdom in northern Africa that roughly corresponds to modern-day Algeria.<\/p>\n

Two of the Claudius coins dated to between 46 and 47 C.E. are from identical dies, suggesting they were distributed to Roman soldiers as military pay, write Anton Cruysheer<\/a>, an archaeologist with the Utrecht Landscape and Heritage Foundation, and Tessa de Groot<\/a>, an archaeologist with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, for UtrechtAltijd<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 44 non-Roman coins are perhaps the most notable of the entire stash. The golden alloy coins, known as staters<\/a>, bear the inscription \u201cCVNO,\u201d the first four letters of Cunobelinus, the Latin name of Celtic King Cunobelin<\/a>, who reigned between roughly 10 and 42 C.E. in southeastern Britain.<\/p>\n

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Grote muntvondst uit Romeinse tijd<\/p>\n

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