30.3.2014 A pot full of silver denarii

Two thousand denarii were found eight years ago by Tomáš Kašpar from Dvůr Králové. The treasure was hidden in a clay jug, but it was broken. The finder discovered the depot in a meadow and reported it honestly.

The pot full of silver denarii was probably hidden by someone during the reign of King Vladislav (1158 to 1172). The site was once a field, so the pot was probably damaged during ploughing. "It was probably the hidden cash of a wealthy individual. People used to hide money like this in troubled times," commented archaeologist Miroslav Novák from the Hradec Králové Museum.

According to the archaeologists who searched the site with metal detectors, the treasure is of unprecedented value. Especially from a historical point of view. Kašpar found the treasure near the Elbe River when he went for a walk in the evening. He reported the coins honestly.

Experts from the Hradec Králové Museum predicted at the beginning that the value of the treasure would run into hundreds of thousands. According to Novák, it is one of the largest treasures of this kind in our territory in terms of integrity. The pot contained coins made of an alloy of copper and silver.

The experts had to preserve the coins very gently and slowly. Precisely because the coins found were made of copper and silver. Each metal has a different preservation process. In the pot there were mid-twelfth century coins, among them were rare types of denarii Cach 605 and 614. We reported in detail about the treasure here:

https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/home/odevzdany-denarovy-depot-6256?backlink=i193r/

A denarius treasure was also found near the village of Chýště in 2015. According to the expert opinion of the National Museum in Prague, the depot is worth 23.5 million crowns. The finder received a reward of two million crowns.

"If we were to follow the Monuments Act, where the reward is determined by the price of the precious metal from which it is made, the finders' fee would be approximately CZK 11,000. This insignificant amount would mean a loss of motivation for other finders in the future, which may lead to the non-surrender of similar valuable finds," explained Martin Netolický.

The treasure contained 1,669 coins and coin fragments. They were rightly called the treasure of the century. A set of silver denarii from the early days of Czech statehood. Two years ago, it was registered as a cultural monument.

Sources: www.denik.cz, http://zpravodaj.nume.cz/, www.idnes.cz, www.kudyznudy.cz