Nieuw licht op de muntschat van Balloo (Dr.)

Samenvatting

New light on the coin hoard of Balloo (province of Drenthe). The Balloo coin hoard, discovered in 1839, originally comprised some 350-370 denarii, of which the youngest was of the emperor Commodus (c. AD 180). About a quarter of the find is now in public property; the lion’s share of the hoard has sadly disappeared, melted down by silversmiths. Previous publications focused mainly on the composition of the hoard. The present contribution concentrates on the findspot. Thanks to a manuscript by J.S. Magnin dating from 1842, which the second author discovered in the archives of the province of Drenthe, we now know that the findspot lay to the east of the Ballooërveld, in the valley of the Rolder Diep. This is in the southeast corner of the marke (village territory) of Balloo. Interesting questions are whether this spot may already have marked a boundary as early as the late 2nd century, and whether the valuable offering was deposited there for this very reason.