It is 2,200 years old, weighs only two grams and is made of pure gold: The oldest coin in Saxony is a Celtic gold coin that a volunteer detectorist discovered in a field northwest of Leipzig. The find now presented is a rarity for Saxony because this region was not in the Celtic settlement area in ancient times. The gold coin – a Celtic quarter stater – therefore provides new insights into the relationships between the ancient Saxons and their Celtic neighbors.
In the pre-Roman Iron Age, today’s Saxony was in the settlement area of Germanic tribes, including the Jastorf culture, the Suebi and Elbe Germans. They maintained close relationships with the Celtic Latène culture bordering to the west, as archaeological finds show. A coin discovery made by a volunteer detectorist certified by the Saxony State Office for Archeology in a field near Gundorf, northwest of Leipzig, also bears witness to these relationships.
A 2,200-year-old “rainbow bowl”
The find was a domed coin weighing two grams and made of almost pure gold. On the front you can see the stylized head of an animal, possibly a deer. On the reverse of the gold coin there are embossed images of an open neck ring with thickened ends as well as a star with rounded corners and a ball. The curvature of the coin and the motifs reveal that it is a Celtic coin from around 2,200 years ago, as the state office reports. Comparable pieces from the 3rd century BC are known primarily from the northern Bohemian Celtic settlement area. The face value of the coin is called the quarter stater.
The special feature of these Celtic gold coins is their domed shape, which is why they get the name “rainbow bowl”. This has its origins in the legend that a treasure of gold can be found where a rainbow touches the earth. The domed gold coins discovered again and again throughout post-Celtic history were intended to represent these pieces of gold dripping down from heaven. The origin of this superstition is probably the fact that comparable coins were often found in fields after heavy rains, where they were washed out of the earth by rainwater.
Oldest coin in Saxony and evidence of close ties to the Celts
At 2,200 years old, the Celtic gold coin is the oldest coin ever found in Saxony. Previously, a silver coin, a tufted quinar from the early first century AD, was considered. as the oldest coin in Saxony. It was found near Zauschwitz in 2007. “With the new golden find, we now have proof that even older coin objects existed in Saxony,” states the State Office of Archeology. However, the gold coin is not only a special find because of these legends and its age: “Celtic coins are a rarity in Saxony,” explains state archaeologist Regina Smolnik. So far only nine Celtic coins have been found in Saxony. But among these there is only one gold coin. It is similarly curved, but has no embossing.
These coin finds are also interesting because Saxony was outside the Celtic settlement area at the time. “The valuable new find is further evidence that there were regular contacts and connections,” says Smolnik. “We call the object a ‘coin’, but one can assume that the almost mint-fresh discovery was hardly in circulation in the sense of a coin economy. Rather, it was a status symbol or a store of value for an upper class that had trade relations with the Celts.” The Saxon State Minister for Culture and Tourism, Barbara Klepsch, sees it similarly: “The gold coin is a tangible piece of our history and proves new insights into trade with the Celts; it reports on the exchange and the people who once lived here.”
Source: Saxony State Office for Archeology