Un nou lot din tezaurul de la Craiova – Strada Nicolae Bălcescu (Sec. XVII–XVIII)
A new part of the Craiova hoard – Nicolae Bălcescu Street (17th–18th centuries)

Summary/Abstract: On June 15, 1989, during excavation works for the connection of residential block M2, located in Craiova on Nicolae Bălcescu Street, in the immediate vicinity of the Hagi Enuș Church, excavator operator Mitran Ilie unearthed several coins from the bucket of his machine. The site of the discovery corresponds to the former location of the Ciolacu Inn, which historically belonged to the founder of the Hagi Enuș Church. Following the reporting of the find by the construction site engineers, a representative of the Oltenia Museum conducted an on site investigation and determined that the coins had been concealed at a depth of 2–3 meters below ground level. This observation allowed for the hypothesis that the hoard had been buried within the inn’s cellar. The Ciolacu Inn was situated near the city’s Outer Market, a historically commercial area, currently part of Craiova’s central district. The hoard was first published in 1999, with a total of 951 coins catalogued, issued between the years 1626 and 1786–1787. The overwhelming majority of the coins are of Ottoman origin, accounting for 99.78% of the assemblage. In 2022, an additional group of 19 large denomination Ottoman coins, belonging to the same hoard, was identified. The newly discovered lot comprises coins issued under the reigns of Mustafa III (1 specimen), Abdülhamid I (17 specimens), and Selim III (1 specimen). The denominations represented in this group include: zolota (1 specimen), kuruș (5 specimens), altmıșlık (11 specimens), ikilik (1 specimen), and yüzlük (1 specimen). The chronological framework of the hoard has thus been revised, as the most recent coin is no longer dated to the 14th regnal year of Sultan Abdülhamid I (1786–1787), but to the first regnal year of Sultan Selim III (1789).

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