Hoard of 100,000 centuries-old coins discovered in Japan | Live Science
A number of large coin hoards have been found in Japan, but why they were deposited is a subject of debate among scholars.
“The hoards may have functioned as a bank. Another theory is that hoarding had a symbolic meaning, possibly religious,” William Farris, a professor emeritus of Japanese history at the University of Hawaii at M noa who wasn’t involved with the find, told Live Science in an email. “I favor the theory that the coins were a type of bank for safe-keeping.”
Another idea is that the Japanese buried them in times of war. “They are heavy and bulky to take with you if you have to flee hostile forces,” Segal said. However, some scholars “have proposed that coins were buried as offerings to the gods,” Segal said, noting that “there is no scholarly consensus.”
If the purpose was religious, this seems a contrast to the Christian and probably Judeo-Christian view of the proper use of coin. Last Sunday at our Catholic church we heard the parable of the three servants entrusted by their master with three sets of coin, five, two and one. The first two servants invested their coin, made a 100 percent return (we’re not told over how long) while the third buried his coin and got zero return. The first two were praised by the Master when he got back from his trip and the third summarily fired and cast out on the street. I suppose this means that it’s wrong to just sit on top of your horde and not invest it. But lots to unpack here in any event.