Haul of ancient Roman coins discovered in Sicily

A handout picture shows one of the coins of a treasure of 27 silver Roman coins dated between 94 and 74 BC was discovered on the remote island of Pantelleria, Sicily, Italy September 2, 2024. Ufficio Stampa Regione Sicilia/

ROME - A rare haul of 27 silver Roman coins dated between 94 and 74 BC has been discovered on the remote island of Pantelleria, the Sicily region said on Monday.

The discovery was made during a cleaning and restoration project by a team led by archaeologist Thomas Schaefer from the University of Tuebingen in Germany.

It was found in the Acropolis, part of the Archaeological Park of Selinunte, Cave di Cusa and Pantelleria, which is one of the largest such sites in the Mediterranean and includes the remains of an ancient Greek colony founded in the 7th century BC.

The discovery was on the same site where 107 Roman silver coins had been unearthed in 2010 and not far from where the three famous imperial statue heads of Caesar, Agrippina and Titus had been found a few years earlier.

The coins would have been minted in Rome and date back to the Republican age, the same period as the first find.

"This discovery ... offers valuable information for the reconstruction of the events, trade contacts and political relations that marked the Mediterranean in the Republican age," said Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, a regional councillor for cultural heritage.

Some coins appeared in the loose soil after recent heavy rains while the others were found under a rock during the excavations and have already been cleaned and inventoried.

The archaeologist Schaefer speculated that the treasure was hidden during a pirates' attack and never retrieved.