An amateur archaeologist who found Roman silver coins in western Germany soon realized his find was far greater than it first seemed. In 2025, Oliver Riedl was searching a field near Wesseling, a town south of Cologne. When his metal detector kept beeping, he contacted local officials for help. A team of experts then dug up 934 silver denarii, ancient Roman coins. "It was clear to me that there was something bigger buried here," Riedl said.

On September 22, 2026, the regional archaeological office announced that it was the largest treasure ever found in Germany from the time of Roman Emperor Hadrian. Weighing 3.1 kilograms, it went on display the same day at the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, a local museum.

The money was probably buried on purpose in the second quarter of the second century A.D. "Of course, we can only speculate about the motives, but it's very likely that someone wanted to keep this money safe," said Erich Classen, the state archaeologist who directs the office. "After all, banks didn't exist back then."

Although Roman treasures are not unusual, few others from that century are as extensive as this one, and the value is hard to estimate. The pay of Roman soldiers offers a clue. Rahel Otte, a researcher, explained that an ordinary soldier then earned 300 denarii a year, and that about half went to food and equipment. Such a soldier would have needed to save all his spare income for about six years to gather so much money, she noted.