Big find: A total of 1,141 Roman denarii were found by amateur metal detector enthusiast Keith Bennett in a Warwickshire field. They are expected to be worth tens of thousands of pounds
Posted on 07/16/2009 6:30:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
One of the largest hoards of Roman coins ever discovered in Britain has been officially declared 'treasure' today. Amateur metal detecting enthusiast Keith Bennett discovered a total of 1,141 Roman denarii, or silver coins, in a field last July. The coins, stashed in a clay urn and buried around four feet underground, date from between 206 BC and 195 BC. [incorrect dates, the writer apparently should have said "AD" not "BC"] ...The coins will be valued by the British Museum and they will be worth a reasonably significant sum.' Mr Bennett, 42, who works at the central library in Leamington Spa, found the hoard in farmer Peter Turner's field in Stratford-upon-Avon on July 13 last year. Landowner Peter Turner, 74, said: 'Keith had been metal detecting and suddenly stopped because he saw a large number of objects flash up on his screen. 'After digging down around four feet he saw the top of a large pot had been smashed and hundreds of silver coins were inside.'... 'A large number of coins were scattered around the pot but the majority were inside. The coins had probably been put in the ground for safe keeping before banks were around.' The quantity of coins would have been worth more than five times a typical Roman soldier's yearly salary of 225 silver coins and may have belonged to a rich landowner. Hundreds of the coins were stamped with the head of Emperor Augustus, while other date back to around 63 AD... Roman currency consisted of coins including the aureus (gold), denarius (silver), sestertius (bronze), dupondius (bronze, and the as (copper). They were used from the third century BC until the middle of the third century AD.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Big find: A total of 1,141 Roman denarii were found by amateur metal detector enthusiast Keith Bennett in a Warwickshire field. They are expected to be worth tens of thousands of pounds
Why is that?
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This cache of coins was found in a field near Stratford-upon-Avon, so obviously this was hoaxed, just like the plays erroneously attributed to "Shakespeare". ;') |
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Date and location of it makes me think it has to do with the Boudicca rebellion.
If I’d found them, I wouldn’t have reported them either. Must be a “British thing”.
So, if this was D & D, how many experience points does my thief get? :)
When coins are found in, say, eastern Europe, they wind up going directly into the antiquities markets, whereas in the UK there is much more regulation of such things. Say what you want about the British bureaucracy (stubborn, set in its ways, prideful) it isn’t very often found to corrupt.
A great number of late Roman Empire / Eastern R Empire / Byzantine -era caches are bronzes, and they don’t survive so well in the soil. Some of those “clean ‘em yourself” collections on places like eBay are (reportedly) fakes now, but at one time all or most of such for-sale items were actual concretions of crappy, late-antique bronze coins.
As the western provinces ceased to be functionally under Roman rule, and the power concentration shifted toward the east, Roman currency was mostly in bronze, as the Romans had previously figured out (as have all successful large states) that money is a medium of exchange rather than being something of so-called intrinsic value (iow, money isn’t a commodity, while precious metals are). The Roman Empire hit its all time financial peak with Emperor Trajan’s conquest of Dacia, and that was due to the gold mines and piles of gold loot he grabbed and carted back to Rome.
Despite that, the Roman Empire managed to totter along (joke) in some form or other for more than a thousand years thereafter, until Constantinople fell to the Turks.
The Brits are required by law to report any find and turn over any antiquities to the government. If the government decides that they don’t want to confiscate this find, then they will give it back to the finder. The Brits are so pussy-whipped(much like all the other English speaking people of the world), that they will much more readily submit to government orders than other European nations.
also from today (this isn’t the one I saw, but basically, the site described wasn’t previously thought to have been burned at that time):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/8151385.stm
“They believe this, along with other finds, suggests the site could have been destroyed at the hands of queen Boudicca, who in AD 60/61 led a major uprising against the occupying Roman forces.”
awesome recovery of historical coinage!
so why even bother to hunt for buried coins, if you can’t keep any of the spoils?
I guess just good little commies continue the hunt, “for the good of the state”.
As I understand it, the government will pay the finder if they decide they want to confiscate it.
The finders get paid the value of the find. Something like this is going to make the detectorist very rich. You probably don’t read about this in other places because people that find large stashes don’t want to divulge where they got them from or give the govt a chance to confiscate them.
Thanks!
bumped ‘cause I want to know too.
Having never played, I just say
“Rocks fall; everybody dies.”
(Thus rendering the question moot) :D
No wonder the Roman empire went bust, all their money was buried in England and forgotten.
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