A retired policeman has discovered 68 ancient Greek coins in a village in southern Romania.
The haul was found with a metal detector near the village of Radomiresti, 140 kilometers west of Bucharest and and about 70 kilometers north of Bulgaria.
Police say the find could be „a real treasure” and the coins appear to be very old, minted in the 2nd century according to the ex-officer who found them.
The coins bear the inscription “MAKEDONON FIRST” and are decorated with oak leaves, Infognomon reported.
The retired officer who had a license to use a metal detector found the silver coins on land he owned and handed them over to the police department, Adevarul reported. They will be sent to the culture ministry to be authenticated and dated.
“After counting twenty odd coins, I stopped and called the authorities,” the retired officer said on Facebook, adding that going out with his metal detector was one of his hobbies.
“It’s a favorite pastime. Today on the 13th, the goddess of fortune and all the gods of fortune were with me. I dug up 68 coins from the 2nd century. Thank you Lord!”, the finder, Paul Durca wrote.
The Greek presence in what is now Romania dates back to the 7th century BC. They colonized the southeastern Dobrogea region and also settled north of the Danube, in what is today southern Romania.
Metal detector enthusiasts and amateur archaeologists and find medieval coins quite regularly in Romania, where many rural areas have been left untouched for centuries.
