Gold Coin from Roman Times Found in Hungary

Archaeologists and volunteers of the Damjanich János Museum in Szolnok, E Hungary, have recently discovered a 1,700-year-old Roman gold coin on the outskirts of Törökszentmiklós, Péter Kovács, archaeologist of the museum, told the state news agency MTI on Tuesday.

The find is also significant for the Damjanich János Museum because no Roman gold coin has been added to their collection since the early 1900s, the researcher said. The solidus was introduced around 310 AD by Emperor Constantine I, he added.

He added that the gold coin was presumably part of a smaller hidden treasure. “It was drilled through, i.e. it could have been worn as jewellery or a pendant by the Sarmatians," Péter Kovács said.

He also stated that several other Roman coins had been unearthed in the area. In addition to the solidus, the volunteers found about a dozen silver denarii and a dozen bronze coins, also denarii.

The archaeologist pointed out that the researchers were aware of several examples where, during ploughing work, pieces belonging to the same group of finds were hundreds of meters apart. In the field near Törökszentmiklós, the experts have so far found 4th century coins, but they have also identified some silver denarii from the 1st and 2nd centuries. The use of money by the Sarmatians was not common in the lowlands until the end of the 3rd century.