The world’s largest collection of gold coins from the era of the Roman emperors can again be seen at the exhibition at the Rhineland Museum (Rheinisches Landesmuseum) in Trier, which opens on September 10, 2022. In 2019, two burglars broke into the museum at night and tried to steal a golden treasure. However, thanks to the armored glass of the showcase in which the coins were located, the theft failed.
In an interview with DW, the director of the museum in Trier, Marcus Reuter, said that the protection system worked. However, this incident served as a reason for the Rhineland-Palatinate authorities not to exhibit antique coins for some time and to equip the museum’s treasury with new security equipment. About a million euros were invested in the re-equipment of the protective system. Meanwhile, the coins were “in a secret, safe place,” as Markus Reuter said at the presentation of the new coin office.
The treasure contains about 2,500 coins with a total weight of 18.5 kilograms. It was found in 1993 during the construction of a parking lot in the city of Trier, which was founded by the Romans. It is assumed that the coins were buried by unknown people in the basement in 196 AD, when the civil war was going on. The coins, which are almost pure gold, are minted with 29 portraits – among them are Roman emperors and empresses, as well as members of imperial families. The value of the treasure cannot be estimated.
Antique coins are exhibited in Trier as part of an exhibition that tells the history of money from the Celtic tribes up to the 20th century. In total, the exhibition will show about 14,000 coins of various eras, as well as minting and counterfeiting tools. The Trier collection has about 210 thousand coins.
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