A particularly uncommon “rainbow cup” coin minted greater than 2,000 years in the past by the Celts has been discovered subsequent to a river in Germany, based on the Bavarian State Archaeological Assortment.
The gold coin, minted within the second or first century B.C., includes a uncommon design of a four-pointed star surrounded by arches on one facet, stated Bernward Ziegaus, a senior curator within the State Archaeological Assortment’s numismatic division who’s finding out the coin. Like different rainbow cups, the coin is curved.
“The identify rainbow cup cash come from the legend that they’re drops of gold that fall to earth on the finish of a rainbow,” Ziegaus instructed Dwell Science in an electronic mail. “One other legend about these Celtic cash tells us that these cash can solely be discovered by Sunday kids,” or a toddler of fortune.
“In actual fact, the finder was born on a Sunday and is certainly a Sunday little one, a fortunate little one!” he stated.
The finder, a collaborator with state archaeological officers, found the coin this spring about 45 miles (70 kilometers) west of Munich on the Lech River within the southern state of Bavaria.
Associated: 2,000-year-old Celtic hoard of gold ‘rainbow cups’ found in Germany
It is unknown how the 0.07-ounce (1.9 grams) coin ended up there, however the spot is not removed from a historical highway. This highway went from what’s now Trento in northern Italy and later grew to become often known as the Roman highway By way of Claudia Augusta that went throughout the Alps, Ziegaus stated.
“Maybe the coin was by chance misplaced alongside the best way,” he stated.
The “heads” facet of the 0.5-inch-wide (13 millimeters) coin “reveals a stylized human head with a big eye,” with the nostril and lips depicted as dots, Ziegaus stated. A steel evaluation revealed that the coin is 77% gold, 18% silver and 5% copper.
There are solely three recognized rainbow cups with the star-and-arch motif. “The interpretation of the motive is tough,” Ziegaus stated. “The star is probably a logo for the 4 cardinal factors, the arches are to be understood as indicators for the horizon and the rising and setting of the moon.
The traditional Celts have been fierce warriors who lived in mainland Europe and later sacked Rome. Bavaria’s oldest Celtic cash date to the third century B.C., however the Roman conquest of the area in 15 B.C. led to the tip of Celtic minting, Ziegaus stated. After that, Roman cash grew to become the principle forex within the area.
“It’s a great discover, even when it is just one coin. As a result of solely only a few specimens of this kind are recognized to date,” stated Marjanko Pilekić, a doctoral candidate of archaeology of coinage, cash and the financial system in antiquity at Goethe College Frankfurt, who was not concerned within the discovering.
If extra rainbow cups are discovered within the space, “an image of the [currency’s] distribution might be drawn,’ Pilekić instructed Dwell Science in an electronic mail.
The coin’s finder donated the rainbow cup to the Bavarian State Archaeological Assortment in Munich. As a result of it’s “extraordinarily uncommon,” it’s going to go on everlasting show within the museum with different Celtic coin treasures in 2024, Ziegaus stated.