Hoard of ancient 2,000 year old Celtic gold coins found in Brandenburg, Germany

Discovered by a volunteer archaeologist in Brandenburg state in northeastern Germany. An ancient hoard of Celtic coins that were minted more than 2,000 years ago. The coins are curved  and are the first known Celtic gold treasure in Brandenburg. Wolfgang Herkt initially discovered some of the treasure near the village of Baitz in 2017 and reported it to the Brandenburg State Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM). BLDAM archaeologists then uncovered more coins bringing the total hoard to a total of 41.

Marjanko Pilekić, a numismatist and research assistant at the Coin Cabinet of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany has studied the hoard.  They are estimated to have been minted between 125 B.C. and 30 B.C. At this time of the late Iron Age the Celtic archaeological culture of La Tène has been associated with parts of what is now England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, southern Germany and the Czech Republic. It is not thought that Celts lived in Brandenburg, so the discovery points to the extensive trade networks that existed at the time.

Image: Celtic gold coins from the late Iron Age. Source Brandenburg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeological State Museum.