LARGEST STASH OF ROMAN SILVER COINS FOUND IN ONE PLACE

BERLIN, SEPTEMBER 22 /SRNA/ - Amateur archaeologist Oliver Riedl accidentally discovered 934 Roman denarii, the largest number of silver coins from the Roman period ever found in one place, AP reports.

Riedl said that after discovering several coins in fields near Cologne in western Germany, he continued searching with a metal detector and informed the local historical artefacts preservation service about his discovery.

The Rhineland Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments specified that the coins are Roman silver denarii dating from the reign of Emperor Hadrian, making the find a valuable discovery, although such coins are not uncommon across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

"The collection of coins was probably deliberately buried in the first half of the second century AD. It was a large sum for that historical period, as the annual salary of a professional legionary soldier amounted to 300 denarii," the Office said.

The entire collection of coins, weighing 3.1 kilograms, has been on display since today at the LVR-Landes Museum in Bonn.