Dug up find ID

Gazza

A friend at work brought this in to show me thinking I knew about coins. I was dug up whilst digging a pone about 30 years ago so was quiet deep. I assume it is a coin but not sure, it's about 2cm in diameter and looks to be bronze. Found in Cambridge UK. Anyone have a clue what it is

bronzemat

Looks Byzantine but I dont collect them.

Gazza

So would that be late Roman?

coachbedford

A really interesting find given it was dug up in Cambridge, England. Appears to be a 960-1080 A.D Byzantine follis.....but Byzantine coins didn't commonly come over to England, unlike earlier Roman coins. A very possible, maybe likely scenario, is that this coin was brought back to England by a Crusader, as Crusader armies often passed through Byzantium on the way to the Holy Land.

This coin COULD be even more interesting than that....something about its appearance seems slightly "off" from the typical Anonymous Bronze of 960 to 1080. I'm wondering if it could actually be a Crusader-struck coin, as these often imitated currently circulating Byzantine coins. So........ I am curious about the diameter of this coin. Bigger than a U.S quarter in diameter? Smaller?

Gazza

I gave the coin back to it's owner after photographing it. I'll get it again after the weekend and weigh and measure it.

numislover101

Hope this helps. God bless you.


http://www.tesorillo.com/aes/home.htm

http://www.coinscatalog.com/

coachbedford

Re-checking some old catalogues, the Antioch crusader coins that were patterned after Byzantine coins seemed to have crude, muddled inscriptions on the reverse, while this one seems to have a more standard, complete inscription--- which points to it being a Byzantine coin.

However, if this coin turns out to be small-ish (like smaller than a U.S quarter) I still think there's a chance it could be Crusader struck. Or maybe even Arab struck. Whatever the case of where and how it was struck, I still think there is a strong likelihood it came to England via a Crusader.

STLNATS

Looks like a typical class B anonymous follis often attributed to Romanus III (ca 1028-1034). From what I can tell, it looks like an official issue to me and not an imitation. An interesting series and almost always found in lower grades so they seem to have circulated a bunch. Crusaders did return from the east, often routed thru Constantinople so it could have been a souvenir or just a pocket piece lost more recently. I've heard of Roman coins being found in the US so its hard to pinpoint when it might have been lost. In any case, a nifty find.

BTW, the pic of the reverse (the side with the cross) is upside down.

edited to add: here's a similar piece on ebay at the moment. linky

Gazza

Just had another look at the coin and it's 3cm in diameter and weighs 9.0 grams.