Posted on 04/29/2016 7:42:11 AM PDT by wtd
Workers laying pipes in a park in Seville have unearthed a 600-kilogram trove of Roman coins in what culture officials say is a unique historic discovery.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I think the taxes in Spain are close to 50%, so you might not end up with as much as you think.
Note that they got carried there in sacks or chests, but are in mint condition without the wear and tear associated with banging against each other while being bounced on donkey back or unsprung wooden wheeled carts over hundreds of miles of Roman cobblestone roads.
Note that they don't show wear from being used in commerce, being passed from hand to hand, being slid across rough tabletops, being carried in a purse.
Note that the older coins show the emperors wearing spiked headgear (Not worn until the mid 200's)
Caveat emptor
Or perhaps because they didn't spend 1500+ years buried in soil.
Hard to imagine the clay jars didn't have a chance or two to fill with rainwater in all that time.
Bronze coins.
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This looks to be right across the river from Seville. IIRC, Baetica was very rich and very Romanized.
Thanks ct. The Roman conquest of Spain took a long time, and wasn’t finished until after the conquest of Gaul, oddly enough. Parts were in various hands, often under only nominal control of the Roman Senate, and chunks remained under Carthaginian rule, or local Punic rule, or was a patchwork of independent polities. Different factions ran around in Spain during the Pompeian war.
Yet there were portions under Roman rule, and/or fully colonized by Romans, in the 3rd c BC, through the 5th c AD, give or take Justinian’s reconquest.
The age of these coins are post-Diocletian; burial of it could mean anything from a barbarian invasion (or rumor thereof) to a rampaging legion trying to put their commander on the throne, to a legitimate emperor arriving to put down such a rebellion. The original owner probably died, or had to flee and could not return. Recovering that much weight and spiriting it across the countryside to a waiting vessel would be non-trivial, even if the person brought along the wain and oxen.
:’)
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fake.html
http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-fakes.htm
http://www.ebay.com/gds/How-to-avoid-buying-fake-ancient-coins-on-eBay-/10000000001336206/g.html
Fakes?............
Reminds me of the old joke:
A tourist traveling through the American West, stopped at one of those ‘Last chance for Gas - 100 miles’ type places out in the middle of nowhere.
He noticed beside the cash register, a box full of Indian arrowheads, of various sizes and prices.
The sign read: “Genuine Old Indian Arrowheads. Small $1, Medium $2.50, Large $5.”
Intrigued, he asked the proprietor where he came across such a large collection of fine arrowheads.
“Oh, all over the place, out back.” He replied.
The tourist paid for his gas and meal and bought a couple of the larger arrowheads for his grandchildren back home.
Going outside, he decided to go around back and see if he could find a couple of arrowheads for himself.
As soon as he rounded the corner of the store, he could see that the man was not lying.
Seated at a table was and old Indian making arrowheads..................
You’d think that construction laborers would have the sense to keep shoveling, hide the coins and shut up. Finders, keepers.
A tourist on a trip through Spain went into a dark, cluttered shop to pick up some gifts for his return home. He rang the bell on the counter, and waited quite a while for the aged proprietor to emerge from a curtained doorway. The tourist explained his need, and the old man put up one finger, and said, “Ah! One moment.”
About five minutes later he reemerged carrying a large and battered cardboard box. From what appeared to be a boxful of straw, he produced a human cranium and mandible.
“For $50 I can sell you this.”
“A skull?”
“It’s the skull of Julius Caesar.”
The tourist rolled his eyes. “Uh, no thanks, what else do you have?”
The old man rummaged around a bit more in the box.
“How about this for $25?”
“A small skull? A child’s?”
“It’s the skull of Julius Caesar as a boy.”
I’ll have to ask my husband about this. This is his hobby. He’s been studying this stuff for years.
That is a large stash, kind of makes you wonder who and when stashed them. Of course we will never know that answer in all likelihood. But it would be interesting as to the guesses that will probably come out on the subject.
:’)
907,184 grams in a ton. Half a ton of coins in this hoard. That is 453,592 grams. Approximate weight of each coin = 4 grams. That's about 113,398 Roman coins in this hoard.
Based on the example coin shown in one of the photos (Constantius Chlorus - father of Constantine the Great) and it's condition, the value of each coin on the collector's market would be roughly $50.
$50 x 113,398 coins is $5,669,900. That's a little better than scrap.
Price goes down when supply exceeds demand.
I’ve seen Roman coins for sale for much less than $50.
If all these coins are suddenly dumped on the market, on which there is already a good supply, I’d expect a very steep drop in price.................
Tom Holland cites evidence in Rubicon that the Iberian Peninsula mining/smelting was so extensive after the Romans took over the Carthagenian mines that ash evidence is found in glacial layers in Iceland.
Thanks.
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