A metal detector expert made an incredible discovery in 2025 that dates back 2,000 years to the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Oliver Riedl, a licensed metal detector, was using the device when he discovered 934 Roman silver coins on a field near Wesseling, Germany, Fox News reported Sunday.
Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, September 22, 2026: Roman coins on display at the LVR State Museum. In a modest field near Wesseling, south of Cologne, Riedel, a family man, discovered a Roman-era treasure. He was using a metal detector there when he spotted silver coins one after another. (Rolf Vennenbernd/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
When the device kept beeping, he suspected there were more coins under the dirt, and Riddle immediately notified authorities of his discovery.
The picture shows the coin after it has been cleaned and polished. Some dinars have portraits and birds:
Officials only recently announced the discovery, which they said weighed more than six pounds.
popular mechanics Daily newspaper on October 5:
based on translation Report According to the museum, the oldest coin in the lot was minted in 148 BC. When it was buried, the 270-year-old coin was still a valid form of currency. Most coins date to between 69 and 96 AD. The most recent coins were minted during the reign of Emperor Hadrian in 124 or 125 AD. “This makes it the largest numismatic hoard from this period in Germany and the fifth largest in the world,” said Errich Classen, director of the LVR National Archaeological Heritage Service.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Hadrian was the ruler who “unified and consolidated the vast Roman empire.”
Johannes Wienand, a professor of ancient history at the Technical University of Braunschweig who was not involved in the discovery, told Fox News it was a “time capsule” of money used at the time and that it would have taken Roman soldiers years to save it for retirement.
He noted, “The coins were found in a rural area near the Rhine River border, which marked the frontier of the Roman Empire at the time. A legionary fortress in the Roman cities of Cologne and Bonn was also nearby, raising the possibility of a military connection.”
This historical treasure is now on display at the LVR-Landes Museum in Bonn.