When you purchase through links on our site , we may bring in an affiliate charge . Here ’s how it works .
A volunteer archaeologist has notice an ancient stash of Celtic coins , whose " time value must have been Brobdingnagian , " in Brandenburg , a United States Department of State in northeast Germany .
The 41goldcoins were minted more than 2,000 year ago , and are the first knownCelticgold treasure in Brandenburg , Manja Schüle , the Minister of Culture in Brandenburg announced in December 2021 .
A selection of the 41 Celtic coins discovered in Brandenburg, Germany.
The coins are curved , a characteristic that inspired the German name " regenbogenschüsselchen , " which translates to " rainbow cups . " Just like the caption that there ’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow , " in democratic belief , rainbow cups were establish where a rainbow touched theEarth , " Marjanko Pilekić , a numismatist and research help at the Coin Cabinet of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany , who studied the cache , told Live Science in an electronic mail .
Another firearm of lore is that rainbow cups " fell directly from the sky and were consider golden charms and objects with a healing effect , " Pilekić added . It ’s potential that peasants often discover the ancient gold coin on their fields after rain , " freed from scandal and shining , " he said .
Related : gem hunter finds gold stash buried by Iron Age headman
The first 11 coins discovered in Brandenburg, Germany.
The hoard was discovered by Wolfgang Herkt , a volunteer archaeologist with the Brandenburg State Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum ( BLDAM ) , near the village of Baitz in 2017 . After Herkt convey a landowner ’s permission to search a local farm , he noticed something gold and lustrous . " It remind him of a palpebra of a small pot liquor nursing bottle , " Pilekić tell . " However , it was a Gaelic atomic number 79 coin . "
After finding 10 more coins , Herkt reported the discovery to the BLDAM , whose archaeologists brought the hoard ’s sum to 41 coins . " This is an exceptional find that you probably only make once in a lifespan , " Herktsaid in a statement . " It ’s a good feeling to be capable to contribute to the research of the country ’s history with such a find . "
By comparing the free weight and size of the coin with those of other ancient rainbow cup , Pilekić was able to date stamp the hoard ’s minting to between 125 B.C. and 30 B.C. , during the previous Iron Age . At that time , the core areas of the Celtic archaeologic civilization of La Tène ( about 450 B.C. to the papistical conquering in the first century B.C. ) occupied the area of what is now England , France , Belgium , Switzerland , Austria , southerly Germany and the Czech Republic , Pilekić said . In southerly Germany , " we find heavy numbers of rainbow cup of this kind , " he noted .
A selection of the cup-shaped Celtic gold coins from Brandenburg, Germany.(Image credit: T. Kersting/BLDAM)
However , Celts did not live in Brandenburg , so the uncovering suggest that Iron Age Europe had broad trade web .
What was in the hoard?
Of the 41 gold coin , 19 are coin known as stater , which have a diameter of 0.7 in ( 2 cm ) and an average weight of 0.2 ounces ( 7.3 Gram ) , and 22 are 1/4 staters , which have a diminished diam of 0.5 inches ( 1.4 cm ) and an average exercising weight of 0.06 ounces ( 1.8 g ) . The entire hoard is imageless , mean they are " plain rainbow cup , " said Pilekić , who is also a doctoral candidate of archeology of coinage , money and the thriftiness in Antiquity at Goethe University , Frankfurt .
— In pic : Ancient grave of a Gaelic prince expose
— Images : The largest stash of gold coins discovered in Israel
A 2,000-year-old Celtic gold coin in the field where it was found.(Image credit: W. Herkt )
— picture : Gilded Bronze Age weaponry from Scotland
Because the coin in the hoard are exchangeable , it ’s likely that the stash was deposited all at once , he said . However , it ’s a mystery why this solicitation — the secondly largest stash of " unmixed " rainbow cups of this type ever found — ended up in Brandenburg .
" It is rare to discover amber in Brandenburg , but no one would have expected it to be ' Celtic ' atomic number 79 of all thing , " Pilekić said . " This find stretch out the distribution domain of these coin types once again , and we will render to find out what this might tell us that we did not yet have a go at it or thought we knew . "
A Celtic “rainbow cup” coin from Brandenburg, Germany.(Image credit: M. Pilekić )
to begin with put out on Live Science .
An imageless Celtic gold coin from Brandenburg.(Image credit: M. Pilekić )
