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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Coins from Pompeii’s ruins hint at finances of the dead

The small change suggests that many of those killed by Mount Vesuvius were of modest means.
Roman bronze coins found in the Thermopolium of Vetutius Placidus in Pompeii, Italy in May 1939.

Cash boxes in a Pompeiian tavern held nearly 1,500 coins (sample pictured) in total — but the hoard’s value was not large. Credit: Azoor Photo/Alamy

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in ad 79, hundreds of people who had failed to flee the nearby city of Pompeii were killed by toxic gases and volcanic debris. Now, an analysis of ancient coins found with skeletons in Pompeii hints at the economic status of those who remained1.

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Nature 606, 436 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01542-0

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