A licensed metal detectorist helped uncover 934 Roman silver coins near Wesseling, south of Cologne — a hoard the LVR describes as Germany’s largest known Hadrian-era find.[1][2]

The coins weigh 3.1 kilograms.[1][2]

They range from 148 BC to AD 124/125, and archaeologists think they were buried around AD 135.[1][2]

The find was announced publicly on the 22nd of September 2026.[1][2]

How the coins were found and dug up⌗

Oliver Riedl was searching farmland near Wesseling with permission in October 2025 when his detector began producing signals.[1][2][3]

He found one silver coin after another.[1][3]

After 15 coins had been recovered, the detector was still indicating more below the surface.[1][2]

Riedl contacted the LVR’s archaeological office the following Monday, and a professional excavation team arrived shortly afterwards.[2][3]

The first excavation recovered most of the 934 coins.[3]

Because the field was still being farmed, archaeologists waited until the land could be examined again.[3]

They returned in July and August 2026 for a follow-up dig to examine the deposit’s wider setting.[3]

The LVR team recovered the coins as a block and took them to the restoration workshops at the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn.[1]

There, specialists X-rayed the block before carefully separating and exposing the individual coins.[1]

The block contained more than silver.[1]

Archaeologists found pieces of a ceramic vessel and traces of straw.[1]

The LVR says the coins were probably placed in a ceramic container padded with straw for protection.[1]

Agricultural activity later destroyed the vessel and spread the coins through the topsoil.[1]

All of the coins were recovered.[1]

The follow-up work also checked the wider landscape.[3]

A Roman villa rustica — a rural estate — is known about 250 to 300 metres north of the find.[3]

The local report says no definite connection has been established, so the villa remains context rather than an explanation for the hoard.[3]

The detector found the concentration, but the archaeological recovery established how the coins had been stored.[1][3]

What was found⌗

The hoard consists of Roman denarii, small silver coins.[1]

The oldest dates to 148 BC and the youngest to AD 124/125, so the group contains coins made more than 270 years apart.[1][2]

The LVR calls it the largest known Hadrian-era coin hoard in Germany and the fifth-largest known hoard of its kind worldwide.[1]

That is a defined comparison, not a claim that this is the largest ancient silver hoard in Germany or the largest Roman hoard of every type.[1]

What the coins can tell us⌗

The dates describe the coins, not a complete record of who held them.[1][2]

Archaeologists estimate that the coins were probably buried around AD 135.[1][2]

The LVR and Deutsche Welle also use the comparison that the silver represented roughly six years of pay for a Roman legionary.[1][2]

That gives the hoard a sense of scale; it does not identify the person who gathered or buried it.[1][2]

The evidence establishes how the deposit was recovered and what was found with it.[1][3]

It does not establish why the money was buried or why nobody retrieved it.[1][3]

The owner and motive remain unknown because the evidence does not preserve them.[1][3]

Where to see the coins⌗

The hoard is being shown at the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn from the 23rd of September 2026 to the 7th of January 2027.[1]

Sources and caveats⌗

The ranking language is attributed to the LVR. The owner, reason for burial and exact circumstances of concealment remain unresolved. The excavation and conservation details come from the LVR’s current account; the fieldwork timeline and nearby villa rustica are reported by Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger / Rundschau Online; the finder’s permission, repeated detector signals, six-year pay comparison and burial estimate are cross-checked with Deutsche Welle.