Largest treasury of Roman coins ever was found in Serbia, containing more than 9000 kilograms of coins!
Details below:
Vinik, a hill located north of the city Niš, was the place where in ancient times the Roman aristocracy had luxurious villas. The archaeological research of the Vinik Hill showed that in this place there were several luxurious villas in the ancient period, which were most probably summer houses of wealthy Romans.
However, what is particularly interesting about this site is the incredible discovery that dates back in 1936. On several occasions, the locals from the village of Kamenica discovered great treasures from the Roman times, which made the Vinik Hill and the site itself internationally famous.
The first big Roman treasury was found by a local named Todor Mišić while he was plowing his field. At a depth of about 40 cm, Todor found a large amount of silver, copper and gold coins with faces of different Roman emperors. A few months later, two other locals from the same village also found a big jar with silver coins weighing about 23 kg. Further excavations of the entire treasury led to incredible numbers when it comes to the weight of the found coins.
According to eyewitnesses, there was about ten tons of Roman coins stored in the treasury. The coins were highly conserved, suggesting that they were probably never put in circulation, and were packed and sorted by rulers and the year of minting. The news about the discovery quickly reached many foreign museums which immediately sent their agents to purchase large quantities, because finders had no idea of the true value of the found money, so they sold it by the kilo as broken silver.
Only a small part of it remained in Serbia - 37 kg of those coins is now kept in the National Museum in Belgrade, and about 17 kg in the Museum in Niš. Most of the Vinik treasure is now probably in private collections across the globe. It is interesting that a few molds for making money were found at the same site, which indicates that a mint existed in Vinik in Roman times.
Thanks to Meet the Serbs for the details
Sursa informaţiilor ArcheoSerbia.
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