30 Roman Coins Take A Bath

Phil , Burying money in a secret place for safekeeping has been a common practice throughout history. The Romans didn't have paper money, only coins. It often happened that a man joined the military, or otherwise journeyed away, so he would bury his money near a bridge or some other distinctive fixture on the landscape. All too often, he didn't return to dig up the coins. Alternate scenarios include unexpectedly hasty departures due to barbarian invasions, plagues, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

When the iron curtain came down c.1990, western tech became available in the east, including metal detectors. Sweeps around aqueducts, old walls and wells, ancient roads, or any other landmark or place known to be in long use turned up caches of coins. By 2000, the market was flooded with these accreted coins. They became available by pounds and bucketfuls on eBay.

The correct method of cleaning these not being generally appreciated, and manual cleaning so problematic, these coins received a less-than-enthusiastic welcome, and therefore had minimal value. Good metal detectors facilitated the removal of the gold and silver ones, and the rest just began piling up. Individual coins can still be obtained for around US$1.00, and much less in bulk.

They do have a pig-in-a-poke aspect to them, in that you never know exactly what you're going to get, but to me that's half the fun.