Thousands of gold coins were minted more than 2,050 years ago in the area of ​​the Dacian capital at the behest of King Coson. These coins were not in circulation at the time, but have been found in recent centuries, and many of them ended up outside the country, transported by human traffickers. What and how were the cosons? What were they used for? How did they get back to the country?

Coson is a Dacian king of great influence

The two most famous Dacian kings, Burebista and Decebalus, did not inscribe their names, the only one who did was a king about whom very little is known, the king who ruled the Dacian kingdom after the death of Burebista.

It is about Koson – also spelled Koson, a king who ruled for 10-15 years, but the fact that he could mint coins with his name on it means that he had considerable authority.

Coson ruled between 44 and 29 BC. (according to other versions, 40-29 BC) and controlled part of Dacia, including the area of ​​the capital of Sarmisegetus Regia. He fought in the Roman civil wars, and one hypothesis is that these coins were minted from gold looted by Burebista’s men in Greek cities on the Black Sea, as well as from gold he also received as tribute to Burebista. .

The coins were created from molten gold from Transylvania, they are of the Roman type, both sides of the coin are similar to the Roman denarii, minted in the first half of the 1st century BC. The obverse shows a Roman consul between two lictors and the inscription “Coson” below, and the reverse an eagle with spread wings. There are two types of coins, one of which is pure refined gold. Among the Romans, the lictor was a companion of the highest judges, who walked in front of them in belts as a sign of authority.

The first coins on the territory of modern Romania were minted in the Greek Pontic colonies. The earliest coins were minted in Histria around 480/475 BC and were cast silver coins. Later, around 450-350 BC, Histria also issued bronze coins. The second Pontic city to mint coins is Callatis, and the city of Tomis minted coins from the second half of the century. III BC

The Geto-Dacians minted their own coin from the 3rd century BC in the Hellenistic style

Going even further, depending on the types of Daco-Getian coins, starting from the second half of the 2nd century BC, four separate areas of emission are defined: 1. Central Muntenia 2. Southern Moldavia and northeastern Muntenia 3. Oltenia 4. Southern Transylvania and Banat. These territories correspond to the larger Geto-Dacian centers of power.

Coson is a short-lived section, but is of great importance due to the issues of Dacian gold staters dating from the middle of the 1st century BC.

“The only Dacian gold coins bearing the name of the issuing body appear in some very large hoards, such as those from Sarmizegetuza Regia and Tarsa (Boshorod commune, Hunedoara county). The concentration of finds in southwestern Transylvania, around the capital of Dacia and in the surrounding areas, suggests that the place of issue of these mysterious coins should be sought in this area, no doubt even in Sarmizegetuz. “, – writes Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu in the article entitled “Gold monetized in the Romanian space – two and a half millennia of history”.

“The uncirculated coins from these discoveries are part of a series of issues prepared for important political payments, probably for the conduct of war, but which were to be spent only to a small extent. Most of them remained in the Dacian royal treasury, hidden during the battles associated with the conquest of Dacia by the Romans, some escaped the efforts of the imperial authorities to return them,” the article also states.

These special coins were minted during the short reign of King Coson (44-29 BC), usually after Burebista’s death, when the great Dacian kingdom disintegrated.

There was also a hypothesis that these cosons were medieval forgeries, especially since at that time it was not clear how much gold there was in Dacia and how much the Dacians could process. However, analyzes have shown that these coins were actually minted in Dacia more than 2,000 years ago.

Designed to fight wars that never happened before

The gold staters of the Dacian king Coson are attested in special literature as early as 1543, when a treasure containing no less than 40,000 gold coins, staters of the pseudo-Lysimachus and Coson type, was discovered in the riverbed of Strei. That treasure weighed 360 kg, of which nothing survived. Also in the 16th century, the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam analyzed coins of the Coson type.

One of the most commonly proposed hypotheses regarding the Cosonia is that these coins were minted to pay mercenaries to participate in confrontations that ultimately never took place.

In those days, mercenaries were paid in precious coins, large and heavy gold or silver coins. We know that these coins were not used because they were minted and then kept in the royal treasury, from which some of the coins were sacrificed to the gods.

Unfortunately, after 1990, thousands of Cosonian staters who fled the Romans were illegally excavated by antiquities hunters armed with metal detectors and smuggled abroad by well-financed and organized criminal networks.

The famous treasure was found in the summer of 1996 by local residents in the village of Tarsa in Hunedoara County. The discovered treasure contained more than 3,000 gold coins, more than 2,000 were taken out of the country.

Several series of coins have been found in the last decade. For example, in 2013, more than 140 extremely rare Dacian coins were seized from Britain, where they had been fraudulently obtained.

An important role was played over several years by the prosecutor Augustine Lazar of Alba Iulia, who led a series of actions that led to the return to the country of many very rare Dacian objects.

Silver casings

It became known for sure about the silver boxes in 2003, when the treasure was discovered.

Silver cosons are found much less often than gold ones, especially since silver was not mined in Dacia, but the material was obtained as a result of “processing” of old coins of other Balkan nations. It is not surprising that a gold coson, although it weighs 8 grams, which is twice as much as silver , it is still cheaper on average than silver on the black market, where some cosons sell for over €1,500 a piece.

What the BNR writes about Kosoni – four scenarios related to the origin of the coins

Coins of the Koson type are gold issues with an average weight of 8.40 g, bringing the coins closer to the Greek stater or Roman aureus. Problems with silver are less common.

On the obverse is a magistrate between two lictors walking left, the legend KOΣΩN (KOSON), and in the left field, in front of the first lictor, the monogram BR or BA sometimes appears. The reverse shows an eagle with spread wings holding a scepter and crown in its claws.

There are several interpretations of the origin of these coins:

Brutus minted the coin in 42 BC. to pay the labor of Geto-Dacian mercenaries;

The coin was minted by the Geto-Dacian king Kotiso and dated 31-29 BC;

The coin was minted by a Geto-Dacian leader from the south of the Carpathians or even from the south of the Danube;

The coin would be a modern forgery as it was minted in ca. XVI-XVII, in the era when counterfeiting of ancient coins was relatively common in Transylvania.