Imagine the Romans did the same thing to mint their gold coins. We having it as easy as we do today with modern industrialization is the only thing that allows us to be sentimental of the past.
ones found in the UK are fairly likely to be pieced off or melted due to how treasure trove laws screw finders out of money. when things valued on the open market at 100's of thousands get 'appraised' at 500 quid and then forced purchased you know lots of people are avoiding that risk.
@@comsubpac I bet 2/3 of found buried treasures end up molten and illegally sold. If one finds one, there is no rush, one can take a year to learn the trade of metal melting from scratch and build a furnace, find the safest forms to recast them into goods from non-developed countries. I guess that selling would have to be in the black market at a fraction of its value. I bet that's what happens in Asian countries as there are never any asian treasure officially found.
Almost all states pay the finder, more than the mere metal value at least, so it's certainly better choice than melting it down. And trying to sell the ancient treasure as ancient treasure on black market is not simple, easy to get caught by authorities or robbed by the criminals you are trying to sell to. And any hoard is more valuable intact than divided into pieces like you would have to do if you planned on liquidating it on black market. Going through the proper channels is not a bad choice at all.
Thank you for explaining this in modern and ancient money equivalent for those of us who enjoy learning about history and especially ancient history. I find it fascinating and have loved learning my whole life. I am in my 70's now and I still love this stuff..
There are millions of Roman coins in UK museums alone....and millions more in Europe, the Middle East & Africa. There is nothing more to be learned from any more of the same.
@@PBFoote-mo2zr your guitar has sentimental value to you. a dollar bill derives value from its agreed upon purpose - a unit of currency. what use does an old roman coin provide to anyone?
Considering how big the roman army was, the empire must have required large amount of gold. Wonder how were they able to procure that? By the way, great video.
Glad you enjoyed the video! The Empire did indeed require an enormous amount of gold to pay its troops (whose upkeep consumed the bulk of the imperial budget). The Romans obtained this gold the old-fashioned ways: by mining it (principally in Spain, and later in Dacia), by seizing it from enemies, and - of course - by taxing their subjects.
75 percent of the privy purse was obtained by financing the export trade with India and than taxing the import. The rest was obtained through land taxes, wealth taxes and income taxes (1 percent).
@@toldinstone Mine, Seize, and Tax: Finances of Ancient Rome would make a solid title methinks. Also, I gotta get to that mining, seizing, and taxing. I'm not sure if I am supposed to hire the infantry before or after mining though.
Found you in my recommended. Very, very glad of it. Keep it up man! It’s great to hear from someone with a phd instead of the usual individual whose credentials I can’t trust at all.
Its pretty amazing how many Roman treasures were and are found in and around Trier. I live nearby and in a lot of villages roman legacy such as foundations, vases, coins are regularly found. There is even the Villa Borg, a villa rustica recontructed on the original foundations which is a huge museum complex.
Maybe something like Roman Currency 101 could be interesting? Just explaining the different coin types, how they looked during different time periods, their significance of their name, their metal composition, so on.
I am addicted to your channel some solace for being unable to visit the sites. Its a pity your book isnt available except on import in the UK, but thank you Dr Ryan.
I'm very glad that you're enjoying my channel - and sorry that the book isn't being released simultaneously in the UK. I believe, however, that it can be ordered more or less painlessly through the Waterstones and Foyles sites. Thanks for your interest!
It's not a straightforward question, each country is different. However, the consensus I've seen is no. If you find something on your property, you're SOL. All you get for your trouble is headache and a bunch of people tearing up your yard. Then you have to pay to get it fixed. So, in the long run, your just out more money. Reason why most people don't report it.
The last find was so large, if it was to come to market in modern times it would devalue the price of Roman coinage. You would have to do what Debeer's does and act like there is no giant stockpile as you sell.
I know a few people who have found all kinds of Roman coins while building or re-building their house in Italy. I can't even imagine how many Kilograms of Roman golden coins have been found, melted and sold as 'scrap gold' over the centuries.
@@toldinstone I found handfuls of koper and bronze Sederstines over the years . But never any golden ones....One time a mate of mine who lives in some tiny town in Portugal borrowed my metal detector and he found a golden roman coin within two days . The Gods can be cruel and indifferent .Sigh ..😉
@@spiritualanarchist8162 As an American, I can hardly imagine the excitement of finding even a few sesterces with a detector. An aureus would probably give me a heart attack.
@@toldinstone Haha..Me to by now. I'm Dutch but I have Italian family living near the former Roman city of Aquilea, in the North-East of Italy. Great area to roam about the ancient ruins. That's where my fascination with the Roman empire started. Anyway you have a great channel , good luck !
Nice video. You should do one about the greatest treasures ever found in terms of their antiquity/artistic value in terms of modern dollars. Like, what the pieces are valued at. 🙂
The most surprising aspect is the honesty of the finders contacting the authorities or museums instead of pocketing the treasure for themselves! Shamefully something I don’t think I could do! You are the antiquities counterpart of Dr Mark Felton!! Cheers from Salt Lake City!
I think I would have a hard time convincing myself that the authorities needed to know about the giant pile of gold coins I had just discovered... Thank you, and cheers from Chicago!
An excellent video of some impressive hoards! I am fascinated by ancient hoards. Their untold stories. Who was in charge of them, why and how were they hidden, and of course, why were they never recovered by the owner.
@@user-jv9qz2bu1r It certainly is. To be honest, I don't collect avidly enough to have a true favorite. I've always liked Nero's coins, if only for their splendid portraits of a progressively puffier emperor.
@@toldinstone if they ever re-make those Mr. Cholesterol commercials for back in the day - Nero can jump off the coin and hector us thru the TV screen. If I were to collect those old coins I would want Julius Caesar (comet coin), Augustus, Germanicus, or Caligula.
@@user-jv9qz2bu1r That would be a fantastic commercial. And yes, the Julio-Claudian coins really are special (though I'm rather partial to Hadrian's issues as well).
The Hoxne Hoard was important in establishing treasure law in the UK. Your story isn't quite right: the farmer was a tenant, and he asked his friend with a metal detector to help find the hammer, and they discovered the hoard. The legal situation was a little murky. Given the farmer didn't own the land, who owned the treasure? Were they obliged to report it to anyone? Could they keep it? Fortunately the farmer and his friend did the right thing by notifying authorities, but the law was subsequently clarified in the Treasure Act 1996.
@@behonestwithyourself3718 The metal detector finder received all of it. Who then split it with his farmer friend. The landlord also got some of the value.
Sono un romano di 76anni quando ero bambino con i miei amici andavamo sotto il ponte s,angelo e con il Tevere in secca cercavamo nella sabbia e trovavamo monete e altre cose che portavamo ad un negozietto afontana di Trevi che ci dava poche lire.. ci compravano i gelati ,a pensarci adesso ,che ingenuità .il negoziante ci a guadagnato😄😁
Imagine you some poor old farmer in England and you and your mate discover enough ancient roman gold coins to retire 10 times over and the British government is just like "Cheers, we'll have that."
The only bit of Roman treasure I have is a silver denarius from the reign of Septimius Severus, purchased in an antique shop many years ago. (The notation on its sleeve was not very well researched: it claimed the reverse portrayed a "native warrior" of the provinces, when it was clearly marked as a figure of Hercules).
The Mildenhall treasure found in England in 1942 must also be one of the most valuable treasure hordes discovered and also artistically very fine.Now in the British Museum though no coins with it but only very nice silver tableware.
It certainly was. In fact, in the first draft of this video, it was the first treasure discussed. But since the weight of the silver was somewhat less than that of the other examples, I had to exclude it. Artistically, of course, the Mildenhall Treasure is more or less priceless.
Time Team did a good feature on Mildenhall and said that, although it was a large mass of coins, the coins were of very small value. The demonstration looked like a big cauldron full of pence.
That reminds of the time I lost a whole shitload of gold coins in a field. I borrowed a friends metal detector and went up and down, back and forth, and only found a really nice ball peen hammer.
Toldinstone - Maybe Kamenica, Vinik hoard (discovered in 1936) should be included. The exact amount of coins is not precisely known, as a bigger part has been sold out by finders to museums and collectors throughout Europe without reporting the find. Some estimations say that incredible 10 tons of coins were found together with coin dies. Look it up...
Bravo So happy I came upon your channel!! Brilliant and I love your poise. Where do you teach? Please mention it an upcoming posting. Excellent, as is also your tour of the Vatican Museums.
Makes you wonder what other treasures were found and not reported; nighthawking is a serious problem - we lose not only the items, but their context, and so lose that window into the past.
@@shelbyseelbach9568 - not while they're buried, no, they don't. But if they're excavated responsibly, logged, recorded and reported, they present evidence that wasn't there before, and so parts of the gap may be filled in.
I am so torn I like your videos but it hurts so much when half of what you end up discussing was either torn down, destroyed or melted by renaissance and post-renaissance peoples.
Yes. It is depressing how many treasures were lost because people were looking at the gold value rather than the artistic value. (The treasuries of the churches and monasteries plundered by Henry VIII and the golden artifacts of the Aztecs and Incas come to mind.)
Yes! I feel these pangs of pain too! So I will look forward to your new video about the intact Roman building! This video was also wonderful! Very interesting!
Look into the Dacian gold that keeps getting discovered and looted by gold chasers in Romania the last 20-30 years , it's the gold the Dacians were burying when their kingdom was conquered by Trajan in 106 AD.
For certain there are other huge hoards buried everywhere over Europe that will never be discovered. Billions of dollars of treasure, not to mention all the shipwrecks on the bottom of the oceans.
It brings to mind the HBO ROME when Pullo buried the Republic's treasury of gold. If something had happened to him, it would still be there, which hints at the reason some of these hoards were there, and there are others still.
30,000 soldier salaries in todays money would be over a billion dollars. That's absolutely insane. It really shows how much less gold is worth now compared to back then.
When the best banks where undisclosed holes, dug in the dark by the very people who were too old (and too rich) to survive the perils of those uncertain times.
There was something noble about it though, now you have scoundrels who steal value by printing currency, give it to banks so they can steal interest payments from lending without ever doing work. Floating currency and debt financing are huge holes of unethical, illegitimate practices and straight thievery. All sanctified by amendments to constitution of countries that were passed without consulting the people, by hack and crook a century ago. When value is properly tied to physical goods like gold, there is accountability and responsibility for limited resource which helps curb the destruction of the environment and the plague of human overpopulation. As it is right now all these notions were thrown out of the window and "unending growth and expansion" structured on a pyramidal hierarchy of corrupt profiteers on a planet with limited resources is the plan of date, surely destined to crash.
Hi, just asking how a Roman soldiers would be able to spent there money. When given a gold coin, how would they be able to change this to smaller coins, as a local, market wouldn’t have the amount of coins needed, it be like us having a $1million dollar note and asking a shop keeper to change it after you brought some good costing $10. Cheers CB Australia 🇦🇺
Treasure hoards always capture my imagination for two reasons: 1. These hoards were emplaced by individuals under great duress. Given that they were never retrieved, those who placed them were probably killed not too long after. Sobering thought. 2. How many more are out there? How many are sitting under highways or canals, etc that will never be found?