For those who've wondered what it would be like to discover a hoard of ancients: [video=youtube;iQL3KM3KyEg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQL3KM3KyEg&feature=related[/video]
I'm curious how many Roman silver coins they found in the end. I bet it makes for a wonderful display at the museum.
I think a article on another forum this was posted at was 300. Very impressive for some of the lucky people to experience that.
Really cool. Thanks for sharing Gao. I've always been interested in metal detecting but I sure don't need another hobby.
I winced every time the shovel went into the ground and every time he used the knife to clear the dirt from around the relics. This is a time for the water picks and brushes. Screens and tarps are a must. I just see my old 1795 being mauled by a shovel when I see this. It took a XF coin and turned it into a AG mutilated find. I still like it, but it would be much better as the XF a little patience could have wrought.
Wow! The holy grail of metal detecting. If only those ancient Roman coins could talk, what stories they could tell. Thanks for posting this. If your heart doesn't beat a little faster when you watch this, you must be dead.
As far as I know, they're still studying them and haven't put forward an estimate yet. It would depend largely on the condition and exactly what they are. It sounds like there were about 300 coins and that most of them were actually of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, so if we want a really rough idea of value, we could multiply a roughly average price of a decent common denarius of one of those emperors (which I think is like $40-50, though I haven't shopped for one of these guys in a while, and VCoins isn't working for me right now). So that would get us $12,000-15,000. Again, that's very rough. There were a few Nero coins in there, which are worth more, but I also saw at least one coin broken in half, which really kills the value. These could also easily be mostly in great condition, or it could be that half of them are near slugs, and there could be some rather rare types in there. And the person who originally posted this video on Forvm also linked to an article on how they're currently imaging the coins without removing them from the dirt, which is pretty interesting and gives us a slightly better idea of what's in there.
Pius runs about $40-$60 for a common & Marcus, I know too well cause of shopping for one for so long, is averaging about $75-125+ depending on the type and young/old bust.
