Venlo, NL, claims to be older than Nijmegen

In July of 2010, officials of the municipality of Venlo in the southernmost province of Limburg claimed that long archeological research proved that the city is the oldest in the Netherlands.

The city's chief archaeologist, Maarten Dolmans, said that "the oldest coins in Nijmegen date from 19 B.C. In Venlo, besides a coin found from that year, are also older Celtic coins found, which are known to have been used as currency by (Roman) soldiers."

The oldest Roman earthwork in Venlo dates to the same time as the oldest in Nijmegen, and the two cities' earliest incorporation into the empire as military outposts (and later as trading centers) was roughly simultaneous.

Venlo, according to Dolmans, can think of itself as older if only because the Romans, having come from the south, would have arrived there first.

Nijmegen has received other challenges for its long-held self-assessment as the Netherlands' oldest city.