2,000-year-old Celtic hoard of gold 'rainbow cups' discovered in Germany

A volunteer archaeologist has discovered an ancient stash of Celtic coins, whose "value must have been immense," in Brandenburg, a state in northeastern Germany. The 41 gold coins were minted more than 2,000 years ago, and are the first known Celtic gold treasure in Brandenburg, Manja Schüle, the Minister of Culture in Brandenburg announced in December 2021.

The coins are curved, a feature that inspired the German name "regenbogenschüsselchen," which translates to "rainbow cups." Just like the legend that there's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, "in popular belief, rainbow cups were found where a rainbow touched the Earth,"

Marjanko Pilekić, a numismatist and research assistant at the Coin Cabinet of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany, who studied the hoard, told Live Science in an email. Another piece of lore is that rainbow cups "fell directly from the sky and were considered lucky charms and objects with a healing effect," Pilekić added.

It's likely that peasants often found the ancient gold coins on their fields after rainfall, "freed from dirt and shining," he said. The hoard was discovered by Wolfgang Herkt, a volunteer archaeologist with the Brandenburg State Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM), near the village of Baitz in 2017. After Herkt got a landowner's permission to search a local farm, he noticed something gold and shiny. "It reminded him of a lid of a small liquor bottle," Pilekić said. "However, it was a Celtic gold coin." After finding 10 more coins, Herkt reported the discovery to the BLDAM, whose archaeologists brought the hoard's total to 41 coins. "This is an exceptional find that you probably only make once in a lifetime," Herkt said in a statement.

This article says German laws allows 1/2 the value to the finder*. * However , the court can rule it was hidden not lost and keep all of it as they did to this fellow. He found gold, (not ancient ) , and the government scoops it up.

Man finds gold coins in Germany, but reward unlikely

Gold coins discovered in Dinklage A man who discovered a trove of gold coins and money in Germany might end up with nothing to show for it after a German court sided against him on Friday.

In 2016, an employee for a landscaping company was clearing roots and bushes at a cemetery in Dinklage, northwestern Germany, when he found plastic containers with gold and money. The man informed the police of his discovery.

On the following day, he and several others found more containers in the greenery that had already been cleared away and transported to the landscaping company grounds. In total, they discovered over €500,000 ($606,600) in gold and cash. Some of the coins bore the 2016 stamp, indicating they were buried only recently. The town then took custody of the trove. However, the officials were not able to track down the original owner. No treasure, no reward

The landscaping employee eventually decided to sue the town. He argued that he was now the legal owner of the gold and money as the previous owner had failed to claim them during the six months following the discovery. The worker also applied for financial help with his lawsuit.

On Friday, the court rejected his plea for aid. While the ruling does not explicitly concern the ownership issue, the judges said his lawsuit would have no chances of success.

The containers, according to the court, were not lost — they were intentionally hidden. Therefore, the law of lost property would not apply. While German law also allows finders of a "treasure" to keep half of it, the containers were apparently buried recently and could not legally be considered a lost treasure.

"As this is not a lost object that the man had found, he is also not entitled to a reward," the court said.

"You can only find what had been lost."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.