Recreational diver discovers up to 50,000 4th century Roman coins

Off the north-eastern coast of Sardinia, a huge collection of tens of thousands of coins dating from around 340 AD was found on the seabed near the town of Arzachena. Nearly all of them are in very good condition, and even the worse ones are all still legible today.

The first coins were discovered by an Italian hobby diver when he noticed a glint of metal in the shallows. He reported the discovery to the authorities, who sent underwater archaeologists and heritage officials to the site. The following day, two major coin deposits were discovered in a large sandy area between the beach and the seagrass border. Among the coins were also fragments of amphorae from Africa and the Middle East.

An initial estimate of the number of coins based on the weight of the finds is around 30,000 and 50,000 pieces. All the coins are so-called follis (also known as nummi), which are bronze coins with a thin top layer of silver. They were introduced by Diocletian in 294 AD, when the currency had been devalued several times and the silver content was minimal to almost zero. These coins were used throughout the empire.

Luigi La Rocca of the Archaeological Department of Sardinia described the find as one of the most important coin discoveries in recent times. He said it was further proof of the richness and importance of the archaeological heritage preserved beneath the seabed.

All the coins recovered and catalogued so far date from 324 to 340 AD. Conservators are still sorting through the vast number of coins. Cleaning them, as well as preserving related archaeological materials, will allow archaeologists to learn more about the context of the giant find. Although there are no plans for a surface excavation at this time, archaeologists suspect the remains of a shipwreck under the seagrass and sand based on the topography of the seafloor.

Roman Nemec

Sources: thegurdian.com, apnews.com