Coin hoard of Roman denarii found at Vindolanda. © Vindolanda
Posted on 07/22/2011 4:51:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A hoard of twenty one silver denarii has been recovered during the recent excavation of the foundations of a clay floor in a centurion's apartment of the late Antonine period (cAD180-200) at Vindolanda, northeast England.
The hoard had been buried, possibly in a purse or some similar organic package which had long since rotted away, in a shallow pit within the foundation material of the floor of the structure in the middle of the room.
Dr Andrew Birley, director of excavations at the site explains, "The coins were tightly packed together and several had corroded onto one another, held together as a group by the foundation clay of the building on the surrounding packaging that had rotted away. The surface area covered by the coins was no greater than 10cms, suggesting that there had been little movement by post depositional processes. The archaeological context suggests that the hoard may well have been deliberately buried, rather than lost, and was probably the savings of an individual who was unable to recover his money."
Twenty-one denarii in the late second century represented a substantial sum being roughly one tenth of a ranking auxiliary's gross annual salary and the equivalent of perhaps two or three thousand pounds in today's money.
The hoard has now been conserved at Vindolanda and reported as treasure trove under the 1996 Treasure Act. It is hoped that the hoard will remain at Vindolanda, as part of the site archive, and for public display at the Vindolanda Trust's site museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
Coin hoard of Roman denarii found at Vindolanda. © Vindolanda
Vindolanda website: http://www.vindolanda.com/Home.htm
In other words, the metal held it's value pretty well, even though a multitude of governments have come and gone covering the same spot.
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Roman camp that housed refugees fleeing Scottish unrest
discovered near Hadrian’s Wall
Daily Mail | Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 | Reporter
Posted on 06/21/2011 8:12:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2738062/posts
You can’t take it with you.
About a month’s pay; same as today. Curious.
No truer words...
Hardly — the denarius started out under 7 grams, and as the population grew, the coin shrank to about 3 grams; these are probably 3 to 4 grams each, or 7 or 8 to the ounce. Current price of silver is about $40/oz, so each of these coins has about $5 worth of silver, a total of $105. Of course, during the Hunt brothers corner of the silver market (using money from the shorts to finance the purchase of more silver, so that the shorts were cutting their own throats, a work of diabolical genius until they were exposed and everyone else, including some gov’ts, dumped their holdings) the price was a bit higher than this.
Collector value is more the $5 per coin.
Fortunate American readers who happen to have silver coins, now know a proven method of hiding wealth for up to 1800 years. Yahoo!!!
The guy who buried this smallish hoard didn’t even take it with him when he left the office.
Yes. That is amazing.
Nope. I hope it wasn’t the rent money. Or alimony, or for the purchase of a needed horse.
Man, that is a LOT Of water under the bridge since his mortal problems became moot!
“Collector value is more the $5 per coin.”
Just a wee tad!
Or shed his mortal coil in combat.
I’m curious, what do you think to the feds confiscating the 1933 double eagale gold coin from a private safe deposit box in Philly?
I am sorry but you read the article wrong. They are not saying the coins are actually worth 2 or 3 thousand pounds today, they are saying that the value to the soldier at the time he was living would buy for him what 2 or 3 thousand pounds would today. I am sure the coins silver value is way below 2 or 3 thousand pounds. I have no idea what the collector value of them would be.
Recently? There’s a topic about it I think. The coins were in the possession of the octogenarian daughter of the man who’d had them back when they were still street legal, and he never turned them in. That should no longer be an issue, since possession of gold coins was decriminalized quite some time ago. The gubmint claims the coins (I thought it was more than one) were officially missing back then, and therefore her late father had been in possession of stolen gov’t property.
That’s one hell of a statute of limitations, eh?
Collector value is over (probably well over) $120 per coin, roughly 20 times the current market value of the silver.
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