Two amateur divers swimming off the coast of Spain discovered a large collection of 1,500-year-old gold coins, one of the largest ever recorded in the Roman Empire.
Divers Jeff Luis Lance Pardo and Cesar Jimeno Alcale discovered a gold hiding place while on holiday with their families in the Mediterranean coastal town and tourist hotspot Xébia. On August 23, when Lens Pardo noticed a glimmer of a coin at the bottom of Portico Sol Bay, they found more coins, according to the Spanish newspaper El Nacional.
When he went to take a closer look, he found the coin "like a bottleneck in a small hole," Lance Pardo told El País in Spanish. After cleaning the coin, Lens Pardo discovered that it had an ancient image, like a Greek or Roman face. Lance Pardo and Girmeno Alcale dug the opening with a Swiss Army knife and dug out a total of eight coins with screws.
Lance Pardo and Gimeno Alcalé were stunned by the discovery and reported it to the authorities the next day. "We took the eight coins we found, put them in a glass jar and filled them with some seawater," Lance Pardo said. "
Soon, a group of archaeologists from the University of Alicante, the Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Solblasco and the Special Underwater Brigade of the Spanish National Guard collaborated with the Xébia town council to excavate and examine the treasures.
With the help of archaeologists, they found that the cave contained at least 53 gold coins, dating back to between 1001 and 408, when the Western Roman Empire was in decline. Each coin weighs about 0.1 ounces (4.5 grams).
According to a statement from the University of Alicante, the coins are so well preserved that archaeologists can easily read their inscriptions and identify the Roman emperors depicted on them, including: Valentinia I (three coins), Valentinia II (seven coins), Theodosius I (15 coins), Arcadius (17 coins), Honorius (10 coins), and an unidentified coin. The hoard also includes three nails, which may be made, and the remnants may be the sea chests containing wealth.
Jaime Molina Vidal, a professor of ancient history at the University of Alicante, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Historical Heritage at American University and the leader of the team that helped retrieve the buried treasure, said in a statement that the collection is one of the known Collections of Roman gold coins in Europe. Molina Vidal said the coins were also a treasure trove of information that could reveal the final stages of the Western Roman Empire before its fall. (In 395 AD, the Roman Empire split into two parts: the Western Roman Empire, with Rome as its capital, and the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine Empire) with Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) as its capital.)
After full study of these coins, they will be exhibited at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Brasco, Xébia. Meanwhile, the Valencian government has allocated $20,800 (€17,800) for underwater archaeological excavations in the area in case more treasures are buried nearby. Previously, other discoveries have been made in Portick Sol Bay, including anchors, pottery (ceramic boats), ceramic and metal remains, and artifacts related to ancient navigation.