Archaeologists in Poland find grave of German soldier and his coin collection

Archaeologists working in Poland's Wdecki Landscape Park in Stara Rzeka found the buried body of a German soldier who died on the battlefield nearly 80 years ago. They also found a treasure trove of ancient artifacts dating to different eras in European history.

From CBS News and Research In Poland:

Archaeologists find ancient treasures near grave of WWII soldier in Poland
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wwii-soldier-poland-archaeology-find-coins-tools

Polish Archaeologists Discover Neolithic Ceramics and European Coin Collection in Wdecki Landscape Park

https://researchinpoland.org/news/p...pean-coin-collection-in-wdecki-landscape-park

They also found a scattering of coins from various periods of European history, but they actually think the German soldier may have been in possession of these when he died (although there is no way to be sure).

"We found six Roman sesterces, next to which we also started to find other coins," Popkiewicz said.

"The next coin in terms of seniority was a coin from the Byzantine Empire, a follis of Emperor Basil II the Bulgarian Slayer, dated to the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Then there was a time jump to a coin of Sigismund III Vasa, and then there were Russian coins from the times of the partitions of the Kingdom of Poland, Russian coins from the Romanov Empire, a British coin from the reign of Queen Victoria, Austro-Hungarian coins from the second half of the 19th century and Polish circulation coins from the interwar period. In total, this amounts to about 30 coins."

To Popkiewicz's mind, the coins' diversity in time and geography suggests that one or more German soldiers were collecting coins as they moved across the landscape on their doomed mission.

 

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They didn't need a battlefield to be doomed. Just a walk on the coin bourse.