Aldrans gold coin treasure
The Aldranser Schatz (also: The Longobard Age Gold Coin Treasure of Aldrans ) is the largest known deposit of gold coins from the last third of the 6th century AD in the Central Alps. Special importance is attached to the previously unknown imitation coins of the Lombards .
history
It is believed that this find is related to the battles of the Longobards against the Franks and their aid peoples. After the great franc incursion of 590, a large amount of ransom had to be raised by the Lombards . The gold coins were either buried or hidden by the Breonen, allied with the Franks, as loot or ransom .
In the late summer of 1991 a walker discovered the coin treasure consisting of 86 gold coins in the rough terrain near Aldrans in Tyrol . Consisting of 7 solidi and 79 tremisses , this find should be complete due to the converted round sum of 100 tremisses. These include issues of the Emperor Justin II (566-578), Tiberios I (578-582) and Maurikios (582-602). 40 gold coins come from the Imperial Byzantine mints of Constantinople , Thessaloniki , Rome and Ravenna .
46 gold coins are longobard imitation coins. Based on Byzantine models, these Germanic imitation coins were minted in Longobard cities and were unknown in numismatic circles until this discovery. Three coins are assigned to a well-known group of coins that point to the royal city of Ticinum / Pavia .
The gold treasure was bought in 1991 and given to the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum as a permanent loan . The coins can be viewed there as part of the permanent exhibition.
literature
- Wolfgang Hahn, Andrea Luegmeyer: The Longobard Age Coin Treasure Find from Aldrans in Tyrol . Publications of the Institute for Numismatics of the University of Vienna I, Vienna 1992, paperback, 48 pages, ISBN 3-900538-26-3 .
- Andrea Luegmeyer: The Longobard Age Coin Treasure Find from Aldrans in Tyrol , in: Archäologie Österreichs 3/1 (1992) 50–52.
- Wolfgang Hahn: A Lombard gold coin treasure from Tyrol , in: Die Münze 3/3 (Vienna 1992) 8.