Farmer Discovers A Massive Hoard Of More Than 4,000 Ancient Roman Coins In Switzerland

The excavators have discovered that their owner buried them at regular intervals between 270 and 294 AD and never returned to get them.

However, the coins were removed from circulation shortly after their introduction, but they are estimated to have been worth between one and two years’ wages at the time.

The coins, made of bronze and silver components, have been remarkably well-preserved in the soil.

“The owner must have deliberately chosen these coins to hoard them,” Swiss coin expert Hugo Doppler explained to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. ”

Their silver content would have guaranteed specific value conservation in a time of economic uncertainty.”

Swiss archaeologist Georg Matter was thrilled by the discovery.

“As an archaeologist, one hardly experiences something like this more than once in one’s career,” he told Spiegel Online.

As exciting as the discovery is, though, the Swiss farmer who first discovered the coins won’t be able to keep his find.

“He will likely get a [finder’s] fee,” he told Agence France-Presse, “but the objects found belong to the public, by Swiss law.”

The coins will be on display at the Vindonissa de Brugg Museum in the Swiss canton of Aargau, which focuses on Roman history.