The Brescello Hoard – the largest and most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever found

Brescello, the ancient municipium of Brixellum, is a small town in northern Italy near Modena. Originally, it was a Gallic settlement on banks of the Po River that was romanized after the area was annexed by the Roman republic. The city was transformed into a Roman colony in the period following the assassination of César and it quickly became an important transport and communication hub.

It was in this city that in the year 1714 one of the most remarkable numismatic discoveries ever recorded took place. A peasant, while ploughing a field, accidentally found a vessel containing about 80,000 republican aurei, that is, approximately 650kg of pure gold!

The treasure was composed entirely of only 32 varieties of types coined between the years 46 and 38 BC, so it is quite safe to assume that it was buried in 38 or 37 BC. The latest coin identified was an aureus minted by Octavian that mentions Agrippa as consul designate for the year 37 (Crawford 534/1).

The hoard was most likely the treasure chest of a warlord of the period of civil wars. Its nominal value was 2,000,000 denarii. To put that figure on an understandable scale, it must be considered that the annual pay of a legionary in that period amounted to 250 denarii. Of course, the current value of the treasure would be much higher. A fairly conservative estimate of about $ 1000 on average for each coin gives a total value of $ 80,000,000. Undoubtedly, it is the most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever recorded, and by a wide margin.

The sheer size of the hoard is a good indicator of the enormous quantities of gold that were coined after Caesar’s victory in the civil war against Pompey. The new Caesarian aurei were minted by the millions and an important portion of this output was accumulated by a small elite, mainly in the entourage of the great political leaders of the period.

Unfortunately, very few of the coins discovered at Brescello survived. At the beginning of the 18th century there was not a sufficiently developed numismatic market as to absorb such a number of ancient coins. Therefore, after dispersing a relatively small part, the rest was melted to mint ducats!