Large Roman coin hoard found

theboz11

COINS,COINS and More COINS


One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector.

JCMhouston

I was just reading about this a few mintues ago:



<< <i>LONDON — A treasure hunter has found about 52,500 Roman coins, one of the largest such finds ever in Britain, officials said Thursday. >>

pbyco

With a better pic:

Big Find

Hyperion

I find the most compelling aspect to be that the last touch was actually from CONTEMPORARIES (most likely?)...

though I guess it could have been a horde stashed anytime in between (group composition would likely determine)

RobP

Serves me right for not getting a metal detector. That's my home town although I don't live there any more. It will be interesting to see where the actual location is.

worldcoinguy

Fascinating! I find it quite intriguing to learn that:
- it is not near any known (emphasize known) town at the time
- it was common to have entire towns establish and utilize "communal ritual votive offering to the gods"

I wonder how many of these undiscovered hoards exist through Europe?

Hussulo

Wow thats a great find.

1jester

<< <i>Fascinating! I find it quite intriguing to learn that:
- it is not near any known (emphasize known) town at the time
- it was common to have entire towns establish and utilize "communal ritual votive offering to the gods"

I wonder how many of these undiscovered hoards exist through Europe? >>



I also find this second comment from the article quite curious. But how can anyone assert such a thing? At best it seems guess-work to me. To back up these claims, they noted that at 160 kg, the pot would not have been able to have been carried by one single person, and thus must have been buried prior to being filled. Say what!?! Now why wouldn't it have been possible for a group of buriers to have done the deed? Say, the owner and a few helpers, friends or servants? I simply give no credence to the claim that the pot was a communal ritual offering to the gods. That flies in the face of what I think I know of human nature.

RobP

<< <i>Fascinating! I find it quite intriguing to learn that:
- it is not near any known (emphasize known) town at the time
- it was common to have entire towns establish and utilize "communal ritual votive offering to the gods"

I wonder how many of these undiscovered hoards exist through Europe? >>



It may not have been near any known town at the time, but the entire area has been settled since the stone age. To put the location into perspective, Bath is 13 miles north of Frome and had been a spa town since the Romans found the hot springs there. There are iron age hill forts everywhere in the immediate area - particularly on the edge of Salisbury Plain (which is where Stonehenge is located). Frome is on the eastern end of the Mendip Hills which were dug for lead in Roman times. Frome is first recorded as a town in 685AD, but settlements exist every few miles, did so in Saxon times and given the proliferation of iron age settlements which predated the Romans, it is likely that they also existed in the third century though the populace may no longer have lived on top of the hills for protection. Roman roads criss-cross the countryside in abundance in the immediate area and there are a good number of Roman sites locally.

I'm not surprised that someone found a hoard as there must be many waiting to be discovered, but the size is clearly significant.

WillieBoyd2

The "communal ritual votive offering to the gods" does sound strange.

I assumed that such a hoard was either a rich man's money or a bank.
Somebody buried it and eithe didn't or couldn't come back for it.

Sapyx

<< <i>Somerset County Council Heritage Service now hope the coroner will declare the find as treasure. That would allow the Museum of Somerset to acquire the coins at market value with the reward shared by Mr Crisp and the land owner. >>


Unfortunately for us collectors, there's slim chance of that not happening. Under the old Treasure Trove laws, the argument about it being a "votive offering" might have had some relevance - under the old laws, the intent of the original burier of the artefacts was important; if that owner never intended that the valuables be dug up again, then the hoard was not treasure. A "votive offering to the gods" would not have been intended to be recovered later, and therefore would not have been treasure trove, and the finder and landowner could have kept them all, and they would have ended up on the collector coin market.

However, since 1997 a new Treasure Act has been in force in England; this act closes this old loophole with a new definition of treasure which includes "one of at least two coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time and are at least 10% precious metal by weight; or one of at least ten coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time.".

In other words, more than two silver coins (or ten bronze coins) in one place = treasure = the museum will get to keep all of them if they want them. The finder will usually get a monetary reward, up to full market value for the coins (the actual amount determined by the Secretary of State for Culture), which should be at least a cool million dollars or so - coins of Carausius aren't cheap - but he won't get to keep a single piece as a souvenir.

Unless, of course, neither the Museum of Somerset nor the British Museum have a spare million dollars lying around, in which case the coins will go to auction and the finder will then, if he chooses, be able to use some of his reward money to buy back some of the coins.

Gazza

-which should be at least a cool million dollars or so - coins of Carausius aren't cheap -

Not any more, they are now as common as the Churchill crown. I wonder how large hoards like this distort the market. Europe is awash with Roman coinage. Their value must be rapidly approaching their metal value.
Gary

RobP

<< <i>-which should be at least a cool million dollars or so - coins of Carausius aren't cheap -

Not any more, they are now as common as the Churchill crown. I wonder how large hoards like this distort the market. Europe is awash with Roman coinage. Their value must be rapidly approaching their metal value.
Gary >>



Most hoards tend to be composed of coins from a limited time period if the contents are in high grade as they will have been laid down soon after minting. This will result in an adjustment to the market prices for a previously rare type but now common. Examples of major finds affecting individual values are 1700 shillings, where a large quantity in mint state or thereaboughts was found in a bank vault. You don't see too many low grade 1700 shillings, whilst high grade ones are relatively plentiful. The Beauworth hoard of William I PAXS pennies in the 1830's changed the rarest type of his coinage to the commonest. Probably 95% of all known examples today are from this hoard. The Cuerdale hoard was mostly composed of a single type too. Old coinage was frequently called in and replaced with a new type which then became the only legal tender.The person burying the hoard in the form of bullion could always have current coins rendered obsolete recoined into the current standard, but any accumulation of wealth in coins would inevitably be mostly composed of the current circulating type. The end result is that the market can get distorted for individual varieties, but it is all a balance of supply and demand for the generic type or mint etc. Due to the uniformity of hoards, only a limited number of prices get distorted.

Hussulo

Some nice pictures of the coins in the hoard:

http://www.wavy.com/dpps/entertainment/photo_galleries/gallery-uk-treasure-hunter-finds-52000-roman-coins-jgr_3472073