Recent discovery of a Roman Coin Hoard in the Shrewsbury Area[UK][10K Coins]

Finds ^ | 07 Sep 2009 | Daniel Pett

[SunkenCiv]

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[stayathomemom]

I must show this to my husband!

[djf]

I got into buying some of those from ebay a few years back.

Out of the 25 or so I got, only two or three turned out nicely. One was a very fine specimen of a Denarius issued under Constantine the Great that has on the backside a picture of Romulus and Remus suckling on a wolf. It was part of the basically millenium collection of the City of Rome (which was already about 800 years old at Christs birth!)

[rightwingextremist1776]

Just imagine how it would feel stumbling on to something like that...

[stayathomemom]

I submit the following to enlighten you and others who labor under the misconception that England would “short” the finder. In reality, England has the most enlightened laws on found treasure of any country in the world. English law in this case states that the finder and the landowner in 50/50 partnership will either get the hoard back, or will receive the fair value of the hoard as determined by experts. And found material is valued fairly, as proven by past cases. If a museum desires the material, they have to come up with the money and if they can't do so or don't want the coins, they are returned. If only other countries were so enlightened, ancient coin finds would be reported in other countries, instead of entering the black market. Were I to find such coins in England, I would report them, and would be assured of a fair outcome.

[TheOldLady]

...remember the Romans inflated their currency also!

LOL! What? They printed more bronze?

[PGR88]

LOL! What? They printed more bronze?

---

What was once pure silver/gold become alloys, coins were clipped or made smaller, common copper replaced precious metals for the same stated face values. In fact, the Romans engaged in serious “money printing” and highly inflationary policies such as price controls, or controls on labor (forcing labor to stay on the farms) which led to the system of serfdom in the middle-ages.

There is nothing new under the Sun. Mankind keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

[Vanders9]

Of course, in contrast to the neo-fascist, reactionary, power-crazed British monarchy, the Federal and State Governments of the USA are always completely fair, non-manipulative, and thoroughly caring of the citizens who, after all, are the ones they work for.

Do I even need a /sarc tag? Governments do as Governments do.

The law in Britain on finding hoards is designed purely so that Museums and other academic institutions get first pick on them. And that’s fine as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want the historical heritage of Britain to be completely dispersed to all and sundry purely on the basis of vulgar commercialism. A fair and equitable price will be set by the commission on antiquities, and incidentally, it really IS a fair and equitable price - at least I’ve never heard of any finder complaining about what they got.

[Vanders9]

Perhaps the original owner was saving up for a cow!

[Vanders9]

It might sound that way, but it is not the case. The compensation is quite honestly very fair.

In fact, I would guess that, apart from their historical and academic interest, these things are probably not all that valuable. There might be a lot of coins but they are base metal and not in particularly good condition either.

[Vanders9]

and very good rules they are too.

[TheOldLady]

There is nothing new under the Sun. Mankind keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

So, they coined more "gold." Nothing new indeed.

Yes, after I posted, I realized that we have done the same with our coins. Pennies aren't copper, and silver coins aren't silver. Goodness gracious, what's next? The nickel?

Then I saw that seowulf mentioned the same thing. Sigh... I'm never too old to learn about perfidy in gubmint.