Rare Roman coin found in Acle only the second of its kind

edp24 ^ | Friday, February 8, 2013 | Lauren Rogers

[SunkenCiv]

An incredibly rare Roman coin discovered in Acle has been donated to Norwich Castle Museum.

The coin -- only the second of its kind known in the world -- was unearthed by Dave Clarke during the Springfield archaeology dig last summer.

Acle Parish Council has sent the ancient artefact to Norwich where it may go on display and will be used by experts to identify and date other coins.

The coin dates from AD 312 when Emperor Constantine I ruled the Roman world. The only other example was found in the 18th Century and is on show in Lisbon.

One side shows the bust of Constantine the Great and the reverse pictures him seated in a chair holding a sceptre...

The picture reveals the exact office Constantine held at the time; the office of the consultate, dating the coin to AD 312. It also carries a mark revealing it was minted in London...

The coin will go on display in the recent finds case at Norwich Castle Museum.

A photograph is on show in the Roman finds cabinet at the Acle Recreation and Social Club.

Another Roman coin found by Dave Clarke at the dig was a copper alloy coin known as a sestertius that depicts Roman emperor usurper Clodius Albinis and dates from AD 194-5. It has been put in the Springfield dig display unit in Acle Library.

[SunkenCiv]

The Roman coin donated by Acle Parish Council to Norwich Castle Museum

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
They must be feelin' [bomp bomp] glad all over. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[null and void]

They describe the obverse and the reverse, but only show the obverse. Typical.

[Verginius Rufus]

After he defeated Maxentius in 312 at the battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine controlled the western half of the empire, but he was not ruler of the whole empire until 324.

Clodius Albinus is called a usurper because he lost out. Three men were vying for power--Septimius Severus, Clodius Albinus, and Pescennius Niger. Severus formed an alliance with Albinus until he defeated Niger--then he turned against Albinus and defeated him. Severus was a pretty nasty character and probably a lot of Romans would have been happier if Albinus had emerged the winner.

[17th Miss Regt]

A close look at the coin reveals whyat appears to be a mint mark of “S” and the letters “VDB” on the obverse.

[RedMDer]

Freepers, your Contributions make every difference!
Please keep ‘em coming! Thank you all very much!

[bunkerhill7]

The next coin they find will be in 3987 AD. It will be a copper coin with a bust of the Sultan of Britain, since the Moslems overpopulated all of Europe by the year 3000 AD and exterminated practically everyone else.

[bigheadfred]

They describe the obverse and the reverse, but only show the obverse. Typical.

I thought they do that on purpose to stop the counterfeiters.

[SunkenCiv]

They’re typical anti-reversites!

[SunkenCiv]

Also, my apologies for not linking to the larger image, which is here (but width-restricted in HTML). A right-click to open in new tab or new window allows a better look for anyone interested. Oh, in fact, I set the link up here so that it will just open in new tab/window by clicking on it.

[central_va]

Gee, an empire that ran on a hard currency, not fiat money. How odd....

[SunkenCiv]

Yup.

And counterfeiting is about as ancient as coin-making.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ancient%20counterfeit%20coins

[central_va]

How do you counterfeit gold?

[plain talk]

thanks for doing that. I really appreciate people that go to some extra trouble in order to serve the group

[SunkenCiv]

It’s interesting to me how the career and denouement of Clodius Albinus (and Magnus Maximus a.k.a. Macsen Wledig, and Carausius...) wound up getting conflated with several of the Arthurian legends, including one (perhaps little known) in which Arthur invaded the continent and never came back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septimius_Severus

[DeaconBenjamin]

Actually, central, by the time Constantine became emperor, Roman coinage was "silver washed" copper where it had been almost all silver 300 years earlier.

[central_va]

You can see the green oxidation of copper on the coin.

So as the currency debases the empire declines. We are starting with worthless paper so we are screwed from the get go.

[DeaconBenjamin]

We started with the Coinage Act of 1792. $10 gold was 247.5 grains of pure gold. $1 silver was 371.25 grains of pure silver. A gram is 15.4 grains.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure, and thanks for the kind remarks!

[Netizen]

The quote on that image isn’t accurate.

The actual quote is: “The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.”