2500 year old Roman and Greek coins in University at Buffalo library archives tray 80 years

A PRICELESS cache of 2500-year-old Greek and Roman coins have been kept in a university library’s archives tray “undiscovered” for 80 years.

A 'remarkably rare' coin — a gold aureus of the Roman emperor Otho, who reigned for a mere three months in AD 69. Picture: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

A PRICELESS cache of 2500-year-old Greek and Roman coins have been kept in a university library’s archives drawer “undiscovered” for 80 years.

University at Buffalo, the largest campus in the State University of New York, had paid little attention to the coins since they were donated in 1935.

The collection of 55 gold and silver coins date as far back as the fifth century BC. Among them are a dozen gold coins from Rome — one from each era of the first 12 Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Domitian.

There is also a “remarkably rare” coin of Roman emperor Otho, who reigned for a mere three months.

The Greek coins were struck by some of the most powerful city-states and rulers of the ancient world, such as Athens, Corinth and Alexander the Great.

Assistant professor Philip Kiernan, who arrived at UB in 2010 from a German coin museum, heard from an alumnus at UB that it housed ancient coins somewhere.

Channelled his inner Indiana Jones to find the coins ... Philip Kiernan, a University at Buffalo assistant professor and expert on ancient coins, displays one of 12 gold Roman coins. Picture: AP / Carolyn Thompson

For three years Kiernan channelling his inner Indiana Jones journeyed to the depths of the UB archives to try and find them.

Even when he tracked them down he had his doubts.

“I saw these trays and thought, oh this is some kind of reproductive set from the early 20th century, some kind of copies,” Kiernan said on Wednesday.

“However, when we opened up the trays and pulled out the coins — nope, they’re perfectly good ancient coins.”

There were three wood-framed glass trays, one holding the 12 gold Roman coins and the other two holding 40 silver Greek coins. A small leather pouch contained an additional three gold Greek coins. The newest of the lot is from the first century AD.

“I was flabbergasted,” Kiernan said.

“I couldn’t believe that an institution like UB had a collection of this quality in its special collections, as of yet unstudied, unpublished ... coins that were issued by the most powerful and most important city-states of the Classical and Hellenistic worlds.”

A 'remarkably rare' coin — a gold aureus of the Roman emperor Otho, who reigned for a mere three months in AD 69. Picture: Douglas Levere / University at Buffalo

Silver Greek coins from 600BC ... Lay undiscovered for 80 years in an archives tray at the University at Buffalo, a campus at State University of New York. Picture: AP / Carolyn Thompson

Most of the coins are in excellent condition, despite remaining in their original 80-plus-year-old casing. A few of the silver coins require conservation treatment. The collection’s casing also will be improved.

The coins were donated in 1935 to the UB Libraries Special Collections by Thomas B. Lockwood as part of a larger collection of rare books.