700 years old silver coins from the Black Forest

One of the largest medieval coin hoards in southwestern Germany was found in a trench for a pipeline near the swimming pool in Glottertal. The coins, dating back to the early 14th century, were discovered by an authorised worker during routine supervision of the excavation.

The incident occurred in early May, when an employee of the Stuttgart Regional Council's State Heritage Office (LAD) was supervising the construction of a water pipe trench. His aim was to find pottery, but then he spotted "small metal slices" in the trench. When he looked closer, more and more appeared, hundreds of them... He immediately stopped construction work and reported the find to LAD.

The archaeologist arrived at the site the same day, and retrieved about 1,000 coins from the site. He also brought in three licensed detectorists on behalf of LAD. The situation was complicated by heavy rain, which turned the ditch into a mud pit, but they still discovered about 600 more coins knee-deep in mud. In total, about 1,600 pieces. This is the largest discovery in the region since 1949.

The coins cleaned so far have been tentatively dated to around 1320. The coins are mostly German and Swiss, mostly from the mints of Breisach, Zofingen and Freiburg. Some of the coins come from the mints of Basel, St. "The evaluation of the hoard will allow us to observe the circulation of coins in Breisgau, the minting activities in the mints, the silver trade, but also the mining in Glottertal," described LAD archaeologist Andreas Haasis-Berner.

The coins were probably deposited only shortly after they were struck. The discovery site was once a mining settlement of silver mine workers on the edge of the Black Forest. The set represented a relatively large sum; according to Andreas Haasis-Berner, it was possible to buy, for example, 150 sheep for such a sum in his time. For today, they would be worth tens of thousands of euros.

After conservation, the coins will be displayed for public viewing.

Video

Roman Nemec

Sources: thehistoryblog.com, rp.baden-wuerttemberg.de, zdf.de, swr.de
Nearly 11,000 medieval finds by metal detectors can be found in the section History hunters: the Middle Ages
Or you can look in LH in the found coins section.

Coins just after the metal detector search

Part of the coins before cleaning

In total 1600 coins were discovered

One of the 1600 silver coins minted around 1320