The Carolingian coin hoard from Roswinkel (Drenthe, The Netherlands) and its containers

Abstract

In May 1870, a hoard of 144 Carolingian coins and a bronze needle case were found by a labourer digging peat near the village of Roswinkel in the Dutch province of Drenthe. The leather bag and wooden box in which they were contained were both astonishingly well preserved, and the entire deposit, apart from one coin, was acquired by the provincial museum, now the Drents Museum in Assen. Although summary descriptions of the coins have been published before, neither the contents of the hoard nor the containers have ever been fully studied as a whole, something this article sets out to remedy, offering a detailed discussion of the wallet, the box, the needle case and the coins. 

The containers are unparalleled in their state of preservation, so are the subject of forensic scientific analysis. The hoard’s significance is also examined from a numismatic and historical perspective. The 143 silver coins and one imitation gold solidus show that the hoard was buried c. 880, at a time when little coin was circulating in Carolingian Frisia and few hoards were deposited there. Coin finds are relatively uncommon in Drenthe, so the Roswinkel hoard is a valuable addition to a small corpus of Dutch finds, providing important insights into the regional economy of the period. Finally, the geographical context of the hoard is examined in an attempt to understand how it might have ended up in this particular location, why it might have been concealed here, and by whom.