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An 8 - year - former male child playing in a sandbox at his elemental school in Germany excavate an 1,800 - year - former silver coin strike during the Roman Empire ’s Pax Romana .

Overwhelmed with excitement for literally finding buried treasure in the schoolyard , the 4th grader — identified only by his first name , Bjarne — race home to show the coin to his family in Bremen , a city in northern Germany , upon finding it in August 2022 . After his parent get through authority , archaeologists reassert that the coin was a Roman denarius minted during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus , who held the throne from A.D. 161 to 180 , according to atranslated statementreleased on Aug. 11 .

The front and back of a silver coin from the Roman Empire.

The heavily worn coin was minted 1,800 years ago.

The to a great extent worn coin , which press 0.08 oz. ( 2.4 grams ) , was minted during a " time of coin worsening " when the Roman Empire decreased the fluent substance in its currency , a unmediated result of inflation , Uta Halle , the state archaeologist , say in the statement .

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Halle call the find " something very special , " since it ’s one of the few times a denarius has been discover in Bremen , accord to the financial statement . While this region of Germany was never under R.C. rule , it was inhabited by the Chauci , an ancient Teutonic tribe that often traded with ancient Romans . This could explicate how the coin wound up eat up in German territory , concord toThe History Blog .

A vessel decorated with two human-like faces (one is shown above).

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A gold raven�s head with inset garnet eye and a flattened gold ring with triangular garnets sit on a black cloth on a table.

Bjarne wo n’t be able-bodied to keep the coin , as get hold like this one belong to to the state , per the Bremen Monument Protection Act . But state archaeologists praise him for his " alertness and curiosity " and design to give him two archaeology books as a reward , according to the statement .

Halle said she hopes the denarius receive a home at the Focke Museum in Bremen , where she heads the department of prehistory and other history .

a closeup of an amulet with a scarab on it

A pile of gold and silver coins

a horse skeleton in the ground

The Pantheon in Rome

remains of a bed against a wall

The fall of the Roman Empire depicted in this painting from the New York Historical Society.

Mount Vesuvius behind the ruins of pompeii.

A stretch of Hadrian�s Wall at Walton�s Crags in Northumberland, England, coloured by the setting sun.

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

two ants on a branch lift part of a plant