Migration Period
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Trąbki Małe

Trąbki Małe, Braniewo district, Poland (former Klein-Tromp, Kreis Braunsberg, Ostpreußen), site of two finds of late Roman solidi →Solidus in 1822 and 1837/38. Total number is approximately about 141 coins, deposited around AD 430/440. They represent the largest hoard of Roman solidi in Poland and the Baltic region to date (figs. 1-6).

First find on 22 June 1822 at a hill named ‘Goldberg’ south of T.M. on the property of the farmer Jakob Dankwart of c. 97 gold coins from Gordianus III (the only aureus in this find), and again from Valentinianus I to Valentinianus III, majority is from first half of 5th century. There were no traces of any container or human burial reported. 79 coins were given to the Königliches Münzkabinett in Berlin (62 are still kept by the Münzkabinett today, 17 were exchanged respectively sold in the late 19th century), 12 were presented to the University at Königsberg, and 6 given to the landowner. A report on this find was written by the Johannes B. Voigt (1786-1863), Professor of Königsberg University, for the local government, which in 1824 was published by him. This report still represents our main source on the circumstances of this first find.

A second hoard was unearthed at the same place either in 1837 or 1838, of which 18 solidi again were given to the Berlin cabinet (of which 13 survived, and 5 again were sold resp. exchanged). For this second find reliable information is much scarcer: Ciołek (2007) p. 250 reports a total of 43 coins. A contemporary report by Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann in the Neuen Preussischen Provinzial-Blätter Neue Folge 1857, p. 414 confirms the total number of 43 solidi →Solidus, and gives the number of coins in Königsberg as 9 solidi. The number of coins within this total assigned to individual emperors varies in our sources. One →Solidus of Aelia Pulcheria was purchased by the Royal cabinet in late 1859, which probably belongs to this second hoard (it is not counted among the 43 solidi of 1837/38). A later report of a single find of one solidus of Anastasius (reigned AD 491-518) due to its much later date remains questionable in its attribution to one of these two hoard (see Altpreussische Monatschrift 7, 1870, p. 564, where it is assigned to the 1822 find).

All the solidi from both finds in the Königsberg collection were lost during the Second World War, but three pieces resurfaced at the Allied collection point in Kassel after the war, and are today in the collection of the Archaeological Institute of the University at Göttingen (A. U. Sommer, Katalog der byzantinischen Münzen. Universität Göttingen [2003] p. 146-147).

Pictures of coins stored in Coin Cabinett in Berlin: http://ikmk.smb.museum/tray?lang=de

http://ikmk.smb.museum/map_search?lang=de&location_id=1236&type=finding

Karsten Dahmen

Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,

Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz

k.dahmen@smb.spk-berlin.de

Literature: J. B. Voigt, Ueber die bei Klein-Tromp unfern Braunsberg aufgefundenen römischen Goldmünzen, Beiträge zur Kunde Preußens 6, 1824, p. 412-431; S. Bolin, Die Funde der römischer und byzantinischer Münzen in Ostpreussen, Prussia 26, 1922-1925, p. 207-208 Nr. 9 a-b; Ph. Grierson, M. Mays, Catalogue of the Late Roman coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, 1992, p. 292-293; RIC X p. ci. cxiii; R. Ciołek, Die Fundmünzen der römischen Zeit in Polen, Moneta 67 (2007) p. 248-251 no. 352-354 (with older references); B. Faensen, Antikensammlungen in Ostpreußen, Berlin 2011, p. 77; K. Dahmen, Der Schatzfund von Klein Tromp in Ostpreußen (heute Trąbki Małe, Polen) Fundbeschreibung und -geschichte, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, vol. 56, p. 75-90.

  • Fig. 1.Aelia Pulcheria solidus (obverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213174 full resolution

    Fig. 1.Aelia Pulcheria solidus (obverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213174

  • Fig. 2. Aelia Pulcheria solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213174 full resolution

    Fig. 2. Aelia Pulcheria solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213174

  • Fig. 3.Valens solidus (obverse), http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213737 full resolution

    Fig. 3.Valens solidus (obverse), http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213737

  • Fig. 4. Valens solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213737 full resolution

    Fig. 4. Valens solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18213737

  • Fig. 5. Valentinian III solidus (obverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18200420 full resolution

    Fig. 5. Valentinian III solidus (obverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18200420

  • Fig. 6. Valentinian III solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18200420 full resolution

    Fig. 6. Valentinian III solidus (reverse) http://www.smb.museum/ikmk/object.php?id=18200420