An 8-year-old boy has made a remarkable discovery in Germany: a rare Roman coin dating from the time of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.
The boy, named Bjarne, found the coin while playing in a sandbox at an after-school club in the city of Bremen. It was subsequently identified as a Roman silver denarius, more than 1,800 years old, and local archaeologist Uta Halle has said the find is very unusual.
Bjarne made his discovery in the summer of 2022 but it was only announced last week, with the details revealed at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
A stock image of a silver denarius from the time of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. An 8-year-old boy found a similar coin while playing in a sandbox at an after-school club in the German...A stock image of a silver denarius from the time of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. An 8-year-old boy found a similar coin while playing in a sandbox at an after-school club in the German city of Bremen.Agustin Orduna/GettyThe Roman Empire was established in the year 27 B.C. Historians don't agree on exactly when the empire came to an end, but many believe the formal end of the Western Roman Empire took place on September 4, A.D. 476. At it greatest extent, the empire stretched from western Britain to the Middle East and from North Africa to northern Europe.
The newly discovered coin was forged during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who ruled over the Roman Empire from A.D. 161 to A.D. 180. The area of Germany where the coin was discovered was not part of the empire, which is why the find is so unusual. Exactly how it made its way to Bremen is still unknown.
It was not clear where the sand in the sandbox had originated but Halle said that the coin could have ended up in the sand during mining. However, Roman coins were also spread beyond the borders of the empire as a result of trade and as loot. It may even have reached Bremen as a souvenir.
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According to Halle, the coin is a "very special" find.
"There have only been two comparable coin finds dating to the period of the Roman Empire in the city of Bremen—one discovered in the 1930s during settlement excavations in Rekum, another in the second half of the century in Mahndorf," Halle said.
Bjarne has said he is happy that the coin will be displayed in the Bremen State Museum for Art and Cultural History, the Focke Museum.
"The coin goes to the Focke Museum," the 9-year-old said. "It can stay there—and I can look at it at any time. And others can too."
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