Szolyák Péter - Csengeri Piroska (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 56. (Miskolc, 2017)
Régészet - Simon László: "Kincs, ami nincs" - Esettanulmány a megyaszói római éremleletről
48 Group II. can be considered as average (51-500 coins), of the 17 finds that belong in this group only 3 consist of over 250 coins. The number of “large” finds making up Group III. are 5, including the find from Megyaszó as well. Presumably those who could accumulate such treasures belonged to the higher end of society. We also know of 17 Roman era coin finds from this region with unknown composition and coin count. THE SITE Megyaszó is located on the western side of the Zemplén Mountains, between the hills stretching from the left bank of the River Hernád (Fig. 3). The name of the location where the find came to light suggests that there were at least two mines in the edge of the settlement. Of these two, “Alsó-Bánya” was identified, in my opinion, correctly, by local monographer Zoltán Hankó as the area southeast from the settlement known as Kővágó and located the sole Roman era site of Megyaszó at the south-eastern edge of the settlement, depicted on the map on page 17 in his book (Fig. 4).The former quarrying activity at Megyaszó is proven by a chief deputy report from 1836. It is without a doubt that mining activity was still present at the location years later, although only at a small scale since no mines were depicted at the edge of Megyaszó during the II. military survey conducted in the latter half of the 1850s (Fig. 5). On the map of the III. military survey conducted between 1869 and 1887, only the western side of the Nagy-Répás hill, located northeast of the settlement, was marked with the sign (_____) Stb (Steinbruch), which referred to a quarry (Fig. 6). The same marking was used on the map of the 1941 military survey in the Kimajos parcel, with the letters Kf (Fig. 7). Presumably activity was suspended there in the second half of the 19* century as the 1904 mine catalogue of Ferenc Schafarzik does not mention it either. However according to Zoltán Hankó’s 1970 monography, the mine was still operational at the time. The Mining Inspectorate of Miskolc released a summary in 2011, in which they located a quarry in Megyaszó’s north-eastern border (csákó) neighbouring Monok. From the perspective of Megyaszó, the description of “Alsó-Bánya” fits best in the case of the quarry known from the Kismajos parcel out of the three possible locations. The 1840 name of this quarry makes it clear that the site north of it was already known at the time. The Aspremont, Andrássy, Almássy and Erdődi families were landowners of the area making up the market town of Megyaszó during the time the coin find came to light. The numismatic pursuit of the Andrássy family is documented by Manó Andrássy himself (1861); we know it from him that he carried on with the expansion of the numismatic collection of Leopold Andrássy (1776-1824). However we find no data concerning the Megyaszó coins in his writings. This of course could mean that the area of Kővágó did not belong to the family’s estate which had its seat in Monok and therefore the coin find eluded the scrutiny of the enlightened György Andrássy (IV.) who possessed mines and an ironworks. Since we cannot find any trace of the find or any reports of it in the numismatic collection, archives and records of the College of Sárospatak, we have to assume that, based on practices regulated by Habsburg decrees, the coins were smelt down at a mint. The fate of the Megyaszó coins that came in the possession of Nagykinizs landowner Miklós Nagy also remains unknown. Fásuló Simon
