2018-03-31 Sat

A buried cooking pot containing 8 gold coins and almost 475 silver coins from the 15th century were discovered by workers laying pipelines in the new village of Hoef and Haag near Vianen or the medieval city of Hagestein.

Experts have cleaned the coins and are examining the same. The coins were issued during turbulent times of Dutch history. Experts think that they were buried in 1482 or 1483 when the bishop of Utrecht and Maximilian were fighting a 2-year battle against Jan van Montfoort and Jan of Cleve. The city of Utrecht was captured during the war. Maximilian forced the city to follow the bishop in 1483.

The earliest coin from the hoard was struck in 1481. One of the coins in the hoard is unique because it was struck at the illegal mint of Leeuwarden, Friesland. Some coins belonged to Utrecht and were struck by the bishop of Utrecht, David van Burgundy. Some belonged to Burgondic Netherlands in the south, mainly struck by Charles the Bold; and some belonged to Liege to Friesland, including coins from Cleve. Some English, French, Italian and Portuguese coins were also found in the new hoard.

Image Courtesy: Oasen