Featured Visit to the Harzhorn Battlefield and Göttingen Coin Cabinet

Yes, I know there were coins found there. There was certainly enough evidence at the site to determine that Maximinus Tharx & his troops were there without any coins. To my knowledge the latest coins found at the site dated to the reign of Severus Alexander. Do any photos exist of coins from the reign of Maximinus Tharx from the battle sight.

 

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Thanks for the guided tour.

 

No, I don't think so. Maybe @Julius Germanicus knows more about this, but the few - 16 as far as I know - coins found at the site are indeed "older". The youngest one is from 228 (and yes, Severus Alexander is right). Dating the battle is based on Roman sources, on AMS (radio carbon) data, and a few other "hints". So this Roman campaign was most likely during the reign of Severus Alexander or Maximinus Thrax ...

Christian

 

Fantastic write up Julius G.. Those coins, especially that sestertius of Claudius - second row from bottom - are gorgeous.

 

I have just booked a trip to Trier and can´t wait to visit those ruins and the museum!!!

Yes you are right, no coins of Maximinus himself were found at the Harzhorn site so far.
But considering that they have found less than two dozen coins (spanning half a century) so far does make it likely that none of the very newest emission of the Rome mint were discovered (yet).
Remember that Maximinus did not wait for more than a couple of months before he started his invasion (I did an extensive writeup about the campaign and his VICTORIA GERMANICA coinage connected to it here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ma...-germanica-the-battle-at-the-harzhorn.306344/ ), so it is not likely that a large number of his new Denarii had made it from Rome to Mogontiacum by then in the first place.
The legions on the Rhine frontier were the first (and, for a time, only) soldiers in the Empire who knew who the new emperor was, so there was a greater need to distribute the new coins bearing his portrait (and announcing his acclamation) elsewhere.
At any chance the soldiers of the invasion force probably did not see the need to bring large amounts of cash with them into the forests of Germania Magna and if they did, they may have taken their old small change and better left the shiny new donaive in their lockers at their home base instead.

 

That coin is a cast Paduan Madal. They had some undiscovered casts in their collection. I managed to identify their Matidia and Pertinax Sestertii (pictured in OCRE) as fakes and in return got a chance to browse their coin cabinet which is huge and very interesting but not open to the general public.

 

You are right, Christian. C-16 analysis of both the wooden shafts of the projectiles and the remains of bones (from horses) suggest a date between 230 and 240 a.D..

It is now almost universally accepted by historians that the campaign and battle must have indeed taken place unter Maximinus in 235/236 aD.

While the sources mention nothing about a roman incursion into Germanica during the reign of Alexander and indeed explicitly state that Alexander was murdered because of his resistance to such a military operation, both Herodian and the Historia Augusta confirm Maximinus´ large-scale invasion of Germania and even correctly mention the distance he travelled and name the exotic units whose equipment was found at the Harzhorn.

Forthermore, Legio IIII Flavia Felix (from Belgrade) which took part in the invasion (as documented on the gravestone of one of it´s members) and fought the battle at the Harzhorn (as documented by their name on a pioneer axe found there) received the honorary name MAXIMINIANA from the Emperor upon it´s return to Mogontiacum in 236.