Another piece of evidence to the fact that hobbies can help science was provided recently, as a college professor from the Netherlands, with the help of his metal detector, came upon a Celtic coin cache. The coins were made of gold and silver during Caius Julius Caesar's time (sometimes in the middle of the first century BC), and were discovered in a cornfield in Maastricht, as the Associated Press reports. All coins include the Celtic symbol of triple spirals in their designs.

 

Paul Curfs, aged 47, claims he was practicing his hobby, walking around in the cornfield with his metal detector, and that he was about to leave when the detector indicated the presence of metal underground. While investigating, he discovered the first coin. "It was golden and had a little horse on it – I had no idea what I had found," he shared. It was only after posting an image he took of the coin on a website's dedicated forum that he learned his was a precious find.

 

The next day, he went out looking for more, and his search was fruitful – he found another one. "It looked totally different – silver, and saucer-shaped," explained Curfs. Afterwards, he announced his find to the city and, accompanied by a larger group of hobbyists and with help from archaeologists, he discovered the rest of the coins. Nico Roymans, who led the analysis of the finding, attributes the coins to the Eburones tribe.

 

He states that these tribes were destroyed by Caesar in 53 BC, as a result of their anti-Roman war campaign which, aided by other tribes, led to the death of 6,000 Roman soldiers during Caesar's conquest campaigns. The silver coins are thought to have been minted by tribes located more to the north, providing a possible evidence of the alliance against the Roman troops. Other such coins were found in the neighboring countries of Germany and Belgium.

 

The value of the recently found coins has not been estimated yet, so if you plan to grab your own metal detector and go searching for such treasures, here's Curfs’ words: "I have advice for anybody hoping to get rich like this: forget it."