In the basement of a theater undergoing renovation, workers stumbled across what they thought was a large soapstone jug which, after examination by scientists, turned out to be an amphora filled with stacked gold coins from the Roman Empire. worth perhaps millions of dollars.
The coins surprised the experts as large pitchers with handles on both sides, amphoras, which used to carry wine and food for the Romans.
According to npr.org, Roman coins show the images of the emperors Honorius, Valentinian III, Leo I, Antony, and Libius Severus, all before 474 AD.
The images of the emperors will help correct any modern assumptions about what they looked like and will help scientists learn more about this time in Italy.
Because of the way the coins were so neatly stacked, coin expert Maria Grazia Facchinetti believes the stash was not the ргoрeгtу of an ordinary citizen, but possibly a public bank, although at the time Germanic invaders were closing in on Italy. and a wealthy person or a group of people may have hidden the gold for safekeeping.
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The Como theater where the discovery was made, the Teatro Cressoni, was built in 1870 and lived as a residential home and cinema before it was remodeled in 1997. The theater was undergoing renovations to convert the building into apartments, according to Newsweek. com.
For now, work will be put on hold until a full archaeological dig is done to find out if there is anything else under the building. The local archeology superintendent, Luca Rinaldi, commented: “We are talking about an exceptional discovery… It is practically a complete collection unlike anything that has been found in northern Italy; the coins that are found are linked, but they are all separated, it was like opening a wallet”.
The Minister of Culture, Alberto Bonisoli, remarked that the find was “a discovery that fills me with pride.” Comocopanian.com tells us that Cuomo was originally an ancient Roman city called Novum Comum and was founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC.
The Roman presence was evident here for the next six hundred years. In the third century B.C. C., the city had almost forty thousand inhabitants.
The foundations of the seven meter high wall built by Cesare’s legions are still visible and the remains of a double arched entrance, the Porta Pretoria, are accessible to visitors. The town would have had temples to the gods, craft workshops, houses, a forum and a theater.
Outside the walls would have been a bathhouse, a cemetery, and the best villas. The Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum in Como inside the Palazzo Giovio houses a number of local Roman artifacts including paintings, mosaics, marble reliefs, frescoes, and statues, as well as relics from prehistoric times to the present.
Pliny the Younger, a famous Roman historian who documented the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, was from Como and wrote fondly of the city and the nearby lake.
Coinsweekly.com tells us that a gold Ьаг was found in the same location as the three hundred coins and was also taken to Milan for examination.
The coins were found in exceptional condition weighing four grams of pure gold each, but depending on the likeness of the emperor, as coins from the Valentinian III гeіɡп are worth much more than a coin from the Libus Severus гeіɡп, the value of the find may be more or less than you really think.
Once the coins and amphora are fully excavated and examined, they will most likely be returned to Como and displayed at the Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum.
