Lost Inca Gold - Treasure of the Llanganatis

Its not the mythical city of gold that draws treasure seekers to the rugged Llanganates mountain range in Ecuador, some say there's a vast Inca hoard of gold hidden from Spanish conquistadors there.

The Inca Empire in South America in the early 15th century was weak and quickly giving way to European invaders. Atahualpa was an Inca king who, after warring with his half-brother, Huáscar, for control of the empire, was captured at his palace in Cajamarca in modern-day Peru by Spanish commander Francisco Pizarro.

Pizarro agreed to release Atahualpa in return for a roomful of gold, but the Spaniard later reneged on the deal.

Atahualpa was garroted on August 29, 1533, and then burned at the stake before the last and largest part of the ransom had been delivered. The legend holds that the Inca general Rumiñahui was on his way to Cajamarca with the ransom when he learned of Atahualpa's fate. The story goes he buried the gold in a secret mountain cave. It is a tale between fact and fiction. Atahualpa's gold existed because it's recorded in the Spanish chronicle, and it's recorded that a large convoy of gold was on its way from Ecuador. After that the best stories revolve around the Llanganates.

The Llanganates Mountains are a remote and rugged area known for difficult terrain, including swamps, dense vegetation, and high altitudes. Some stories suggest that Rumiñahui may have thrown some of the gold into a lagoon to further conceal it.

Over the centuries countless explorers have sought Atahualpa's gold, but the mountains of the Llanganates have refused to surrender it.

Unlike in Peru, where attention goes to Inca sites such as Machu Picchu, Ecuador's archaeological ruins attract few tourists.

Gold aureus of Septimius Severus

A circa A.D. 202 to 210 gold aureus issued by Septimius Severus recalls the measures he took to keep his sons Caracalla and Geta from fighting.

The boys were then in their mid to late teens and hated each other. All three appear on horses on the reverse of the aureus, raising their right hands as if receiving an ovation. Severus took his wife and two sons to wage war against the Caledonians of northern Britain. Severus sent his sons to lead the troops. While in Britain Severus fell ill and died in A.D. 211, leaving behind two sons who were intent on eliminating one another.

The Romans never campaigned deep into Caledonia again: they withdrew south permanently to Hadrian's Wall.

Upon his death, Severus was deified by the Senate and succeeded by Caracalla and Geta, who were advised by his wife Julia Domna. Caracalla had Geta murdered later that year. Caracalla persecuted and executed most of Geta's supporters and ordered a damnatio memoriae. It became a capital offence to speak or write Geta's name.

Severus was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. His remains are now lost. Severus' currency debasement was the largest since the reign of Nero. The coin is among his best known. It had an estimate of $24,000 to $30,000.

The Bunnik hoard

44 gold staters were discovered with 360 Roman coins by metal detectorists in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht Netherlands in 2023.

Included were 72 gold aurei, dated between 18 B.C. and 47 A.D. The Roman gold exhibits no wear, suggesting they were freshly minted.

Most of the hoard are Roman coins dating between 46 and 47 A.D., a period marking the end of the first Roman conquests in Britain. Many bear the image of Emperor Claudius, who was crucial in expanding the empire’s reach into the British Isles. Some of the nearly 300 silver denarii date as far back as 200 B.C.

Saters bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin were very likely the spoils of war of Roman soldiers from the conquest of Britain. Celtic king Cunobelinus reigned between AD5 and AD40 in the south-east of Britain. Four of the staters are posthumous issues, probably struck by Cunobelinus’s successors as ruler of the Catuvellauni tribe, the brothers Togodumnus and Caratacus, around AD 43. The hoard would have amounted to over 12 years in wages for an ordinary Roman soldier.

The most recent coins in the hoard were struck in AD 46-47, and bear the portrait of the emperor Claudius. The area where the coins were discovered was a site from which the Romans had prepared for first crossing to Britain. It now appears it was also an area to which the conquering troops returned to the mainland. The wide chronological range of the coins suggests they are consistent with being spoils from the early Roman conquest of Britain under the general Aulus Plautius (AD43-47). The coins may have been distributed to the army as a donativum, a bonus for a successful campaign.

Britain consisted of several separate kingdoms before Claudius ordered Aulus Plautius to invade with a force of four legions reinforced by a further 20,000 auxiliary soldiers. The Romans landed at Richborough, Kent and were met a large army of Britons under the Catuvellauni kings Caratacus and his brother Togodumnus, on the River Medway.

Spearheaded by Legio II Augusta under Vespasian, the Romans crossed the river and defeated the Britons in the Battle of the Medway.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ to John of Patmos, at 6:1-8.

The chapter tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. The four riders are often seen as symbolizing Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the four horsemen set a divine apocalypse upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment.

The rider of the second horse is taken to represent War. His horse is red. The color red, and the rider's possession of a great sword, suggests blood.

The first horseman is called Pestilence, and is associated with infectious disease and plague. "They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:7-8). "When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him."  (Revelation 6:3-4)

Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513

The End Times will experience the 4 horsemen.

The third horseman rides a black horse and is understood to be Famine as the horseman carries a pair of balances or weighing scales, indicating the way that bread would have been weighed during a famine. "When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand." (Revelation 6:5-6)

The fourth and final horseman is named Death. Of all the riders, he is the only one to whom the text explicitly gives a name. Unlike the other three, he is not described carrying a weapon or other object, instead he is followed by Hades. Illustrations commonly depict him carrying a scythe. When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him.  The four horsemen portray four disastrous occurrences that will take place before the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Coins of Marcus Antonius

Following the assassination of Caesar in 44 BCE, Rome was plunged into chaos. Many of Caesar’s conspirators, including M. Junius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus, (Brutus and Cassius) fled Rome in fear of reprisal. Caesar’s ally, M. Antonius (Marc Antony) seized control during the power vacuum, with the conspirators on the run and Caesar’s designated heir, G. Octavius Thurinus, (Octavian) still with an army in Macedonia. He returned to Rome with a new name, G. Julius Caesar Octavianus.

This left Octavian in command of all of their eight legions. Octavian began negotiations with Antony.

In the spring of 43 BCE, Octavian, along with the consuls Aulus Hirtius and G. Vibius Pansa Caetronianus, conquered Antony and his five legions at the Battle of Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul. Though victorious, Hirtius was killed and Pansa died of possible poisoning.

Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus established a three-man dictatorship.

Antony, desperate to retain troops, began to strike one of the more iconic series of coinage in Rome’s history, the legionary denarius. The legionary denarii were the largest issue of silver coinage produced in the late Republican period. Mark Antony’s Legionary Denarii celebrate his many legions – 23 of them, with two extra coins celebrating additional cohorts. They were struck in a lower-purity alloy of silver and copper and remained in circulation for centuries.

The coins allude directly to the events of the day, as they feature a praetorian galley. On September 2, 31 BCE, the forces of Octavian and M. Vipsanius Agrippa defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium, a promontory between the Ambracian Gulf and the Ionian Sea. Antony and Cleopatra were forced to retreat for Egypt. The final defeat was the Battle of Alexandria on August 1, 30 BCE. It was the official end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Roman Empire.

Aureus bearing the portraits of Mark Antony (left) and Octavian (right). Struck in 41 BC, this coin was issued to celebrate the establishment of the Second Triumvirate.

Marcus Antonius portrait. Denarius, 42 B.C. Mark Antony and Cleopatra. 34 BC.

38 BCE Marcus Antonius aureus minted in Athens during the Second Triumvirate, representing the brief political alliance between Mark Antony and Octavian. Aureus of Antony and his son Antyllus. 34 BC.

The Five Good Emperors

The five Good Emperors refers to the succession of Nerva (96–98 CE), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161), and Marcus Aurelius (161–180). They presided over the most majestic days of the mighty Roman Empire.

After the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180, the empire quickly descended into chaos which was not ended until the assassination of Commodus (December 31, 192 AD) and the triumph of Septimius Severus. With Commodus' murder, the Nerva–Antonine dynasty came to an end. Turmoil continued until the 'Year of the Five Emperors'. The Roman Empire would never be as great again.

193 AD was a period of intense civil war and political chaos in the Roman Empire following the assassination of Commodus. Five men, Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus, and Septimius Severus claimed the throne, ultimately leading to the rise of the Severan dynasty.

Nerva

Trajan

Hadrian

Antoninus Pius

Marcus Aurelius

Hadrian

Hadrian was the third of the Five Good Emperors and reigned during the peak of Roman power. (117–138) Hadrian was born in Italica, in the present-day Andalusian province of Seville in southern Spain. Hadrian married, through arrangement, Vibia Sabina, grandniece of the ruling emperor, Trajan, and his second cousin once removed. His marriage was unhappy and childless.

His ascension was controversial as his predecessor Trajan hadn't chosen a successor until he was on his deathbed. Trajan’s wife Plotina sent a letter to the Senate declaring Hadrian as the new heir. It was only after the appointment that the Senate was informed Trajan had died. Hadrian had a successful reign. He completed many building projects, including the Vallum Aelium. (Hadrian’s Wall)

Hadrian was a military expert, but his reign saw little conflict. Hadrian's last years were marred by chronic illness.

Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Hadrian selected Lucius Aelius Caesar to succeed him, but Aelius died suddenly. As an alternative Hadrian appointed Antoninus Pius with the provision that he would then choose Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as his successors. Pius agreed, and the Golden Age of Rome continued. Hadrian kept a beard, and all his coins show him bearded. Some accounts suggest it hid his facial battle scars.

A quality Hadrian aureus (VF or better) is always desirable and will bring at least $10k.