Hoard of Roman gold coins recovered from seabed

Staircoins

Quite a find off the Spanish coast!

Valentinian I (3 coins), Valentinian II (7 coins), Theodosius I (15 coins), Arcadius (17 coins), Honorius (10 coins) and an unidentified coin.

https://archaeology.wiki/blog/2021/09/24/fifty-three-gold-coins-found-on-the-seabed-of-portitxol-in-xabia/

https://heritagedaily.com/2021/09/hoard-of-roman-gold-coins-recovered-from-seabed/141483

https://web.ua.es/en/actualidad-universitaria/2021/septiembre2021/20-26/fifty-three-gold-coins-from-the-4th-and-5th-centuries-found-on-the-seabed-of-portitxol-in-xabia.html

7Jaguars

Nice, I'd have liked to have found those. I always wonder how honest the first divers were about how many coins they found - I can't imagine "holding back" a specimen [or two].

DeiGratia

Interesting.

Question: why report it at all? Is there some legal issues with just keeping the coins and selling them on the market?

7Jaguars

Jail

291fifth

Someone wealthy must have gone down with the ship, perhaps clutching his bag of gold coins.

Sapyx

@DeiGratia said:
Interesting.

Question: why report it at all? Is there some legal issues with just keeping the coins and selling them on the market?

The discovery was off the coast of Spain. Most countries, including Spain, consider all underwater treasure within their territorial waters, shipwreck or not, and no matter how old, to be property of the State. Illegally excavating them results in heavy fines, imprisonment and confiscation of anything the government believes might have been stolen.

These guys are being held up as paragons of Spanish virtue, cultural pride and honesty for diligently reporting their find. If it later emerges that they actually kept a few coins, illegally, their names would be mud. And they knew this as soon as their discovery was made known.

Further, "selling them on the market" is problematic in Spain, as buying and selling antiquities (including ancient coins) is strictly controlled. Any legitimate buyer would want to know the legal providence, and freshly looted coins don't have legal provenance. You'd have to either find an illegitimate buyer, or try to smuggle the coins out of the country (with, again, fines and prison if you get caught).

Namvet69

I think they did the right thing. They got the bragging rights for sure! Peace Roy

DeiGratia

Thank you Sapyx for the detailed response. I don’t collect ancients but what little I have seen in NGC ancient holders display no provenance whatsoever. I guess bragging rights are better than jail.

Staircoins

Would be nice if the museum now housing the coins would post decent photos of them. The shots from the video accompanying the press release are practically useless.