Rare ancient Roman coins found near Kaliningrad, Russia

[Viggen]

Archeologists from the Sambian expedition of the Russian Institute of Archeology have found a unique collection of Roman coins dating back to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD in the Kaliningrad region, Interfax reports.  The Kaliningrad Regional Historical and Arts Museum told Interfax that the discovered treasure has already been handed over to the museum.  The find consists of over 100 Roman bronze sestertii bearing the portraits of emperors from the Nerva-Antonine dynasty: from Trajan, famous for his vast conquests, to the eccentric Commodus whose accession to the throne in 180 AD marked the end of the era of "the five kind emperors....

 

....more at the Voice of Russia

 

p.s. Kaliningrad formerly Königsberg (Prussia) is just a few miles east of the polish border, so it is interesting to see how for north east the roman trade was going, surely it had somethign to do with amber?

[dougsmit]

I really find it offensive when the non-numismatic press feels the need to post a image but has no idea what they are doing with the selection.  This article discusses bronze sestertii of the 2nd century AD so some editor went online and grabbed a Republican silver coin 400 years too old to illustrate this piece.   Now I doubt anyone associated with that publication recognizes that the IIS behind Roma's head is the denomination mark for two and a half asses or 1/4 of a denarius which was called a sestertius.  To them, anything that hit a search for sestertius is good enough.   Of course it would be asking too much for them to use a photo of the actual coins found.  When I see something like this, I can only wonder if they are as inaccurate in the other matters they cover so I tend to discount anything written or shown on the site as probably erroneous.  

 

That particular image was taken from Wikipedia as provided by the dealer Classical Numismatic Group.   CNG has an image resource  that includes at least a thousand 2nd century sestertii that would have been fine for the purpose of this article.  

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcus_Aurelius_Sestertius_177_860042.jpg

 

Since the article mentions most coins were of Marcus Aurelius and that types might transmit information about military campaigns, they might have used the above linked image portraying Marcus Aurelius with a reverse of arms captured from the Germans. The most important thing we can learn from this article is to read all sources with care.  Who knows what else they got wrong??? 

[Viggen]

...awesome reply dougsmit, great to have your numismatic knowledge...

 

to the article; do you happen to know if there have been similar finds of roman coin hoards in the baltic?

[dougsmit]

I do not know.  This is not something I have studied but I know there is a lot written on Roman coins that traveled a lot further north than I would have expected.   Almost all of it is in languages I do not read.  For example, the bibliographies on these links are not small but probably not very inclusive either:

http://histoiremesure.revues.org/886

http://www.archeo.uw.edu.pl/zalaczniki/upload800.pdf

http://ww.archeo.uw.edu.pl/zalaczniki/upload670.pdf

 

The last, in particular, covers bronze coins of a similar period.  Finds are very hard to study privately since relatively few countries other than the UK encourage private search for treasure.  Elsewhere, where such activities are not legal,  a find (accidental or searched out) is as likely to be melted as it is to be reported.  

[guy]

First, I also want to thank Ancient Doug for sharing his greatly respected numismatic expertise on this forum. He has generously shared over the years his vast knowledge with several generations of younger numismatists and non-numismatists (such as me).

 

Reading the article, I was disturbed by this quote:

 

The Kaliningrad Regional Historical and Arts Museum told Interfax that the discovered treasure has already been handed over to the museum.

 

The find consists of over 100 Roman bronze sestertii....

I find it unlikely that an active trade with a distant region would involve mere bronze sestertii. I doubt plunder would not include silver and gold, either.

 

Contast this find with the coins found on the possible trade route with India: (silver) denarii and (gold) aureii:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_and_relations

 

We had a related discussion on these boards about the Indo-Roman trade a few years back:

 

http://www.unrv.com/forum/topic/11265-evidence-of-roman-colonies-in-india/

 

Thank you, again, Ancient Doug for sharing at this site. Please continue sharing your insight (and making any corrections) here at UNRV. (Please be patient with us non-numismatists, however.) Welcome.

 

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited May 17, 2014 by guy