UK treasure hunter finds 52,000 ancient Roman coins

Yahoo ^ | July 6, 2010 | Robert Barr

[GeronL]

LONDON – A treasure hunter has found about 52,500 Roman coins, one of the largest such discoveries ever in Britain, officials said Thursday.

The hoard, which was valued at 3.3 million pounds ($5 million), includes hundreds of coins bearing the image of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, who seized power in Britain and northern France in the late third century and proclaimed himself emperor.

[bgill]

Why, yes!

[sodpoodle]

That should cover the British deficit;)

[traderrob6]

“Any opinion on the worth?”

Negative value meaning you will owe.

[Mannaggia l'America]

Must be fun to do some treasure hunting in places like the UK, where there is the potential for something like this.

As a kid I had a cheap Radio Shack metal detector, and collected coins, and dreamed of finding something like this.

Of course, about the biggest find I ever had was spoon in my grandmother's back yard...

[Red Badger]

Avoidance of taxes is a long tradition...................

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Not exactly, Geoffrey of Monmouth (From whom the Arthurian legend is believed to orginated from) created a legend around him which suggested he was British-Born (he was in fact a Gaul, but Gaul and Britain were so similar at this point that the difference is hardly relevant) and that he seized control of Britain from Bassianus (Caracalla) who lived and died before Carausius was even born.
In fact Carausius was in charge of the Classis Britannica (a large Roman Fleet based in Britain) and rebelled against Diolcletian’s co-emperor Maximian in 286, he successfully resisted Rome’s attempts to to re-conquer Britain (which may explain Geoffrey of Monmouth’s attempt to build a pro-English/British legend around him juxtaposed with a legendarily evil Emperor like Caracalla) until he was assassinated by his own treasurer Allectus, who lost the Britain back to Rome in 293.
Still quite an interesting character though. He is responsible for the earliest coins minted in London, and I’ve had the privilege of handling many of them (not from this hoard though)...

[sinanju]

I always wondered if Roman Britain ever had a chance to stand on it’s own?

The official line is that it was not economically self-sustaining and that the Britons were never really romanized.

[SuperLuminal]

"they just happened to land in a big old Roman clay pot, huh? "

I guess that sleeze-bag, former Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), must be descended from the original owner of the clay pot?

[KarlInOhio]

I’ll bet that he has no claim to them. Maybe he will get a thank you from the government when they take them.

From what I understand, the British government may take the coins, but they are pretty good at paying a fair market value for them. They don't want people finding them and smuggling them out of the country to sell them, like would happen if they just confiscated them without payment.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Very noble of him to call the proper authorities and hand it over knowing that he will get nothing and instead it will be locked up somewhere or sold to pay for more fabulous British health care.

Actually, that is a load of rubbish. If they are declared Treasure Trove by the County Coroner, he will share the full commercial value of the coins with the landowner. Not only is this extremely fair, but it dissuades people who find these hoards from disappearing with what they find, cheating the landowner and robbing archeologists of the chance to properly analyze the find and put it in an historical context to learn more about history from this period. It is especially important to have a policy like this with coins of the late third century because Rome was in a state of chaos during this period and left relatively few surviving historical records and much of what we know about Britain in this period is derived from the coins that the Romans/RomanoBritish left behind...

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Very noble of him to call the proper authorities and hand it over knowing that he will get nothing and instead it will be locked up somewhere or sold to pay for more fabulous British health care.

Actually, that is a load of rubbish. If they are declared Treasure Trove by the County Coroner, he will share the full commercial value of the coins with the landowner. Not only is this extremely fair, but it dissuades people who find these hoards from disappearing with what they find, cheating the landowner and robbing archeologists of the chance to properly analyze the find and put it in an historical context to learn more about history from this period. It is especially important to have a policy like this with coins of the late third century because Rome was in a state of chaos during this period and left relatively few surviving historical records and much of what we know about Britain in this period is derived from the coins that the Romans/RomanoBritish left behind...

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks GeronL. sinanju, Carausius was a Roman general or governor who took Britain independent during the chaotic 3rd c. His connection to the Arthur story might consist of his having run the place from Colchester, which in Roman times was known as Camulodunum ("Camelot"). He's also found in one of the series of novels by Rosemary Sutcliff, and I think at least one of those has been made into a movie in recent years. Huge Roman coin find for hobbyist 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. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Pan_Yan]

Mea Culpa. He'll get something.

[Pan_Yan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I looked it up. I admit it, I was wrong.

[agere_contra]

Moreover, the value of the find is enhanced by the provenance given to it by the archaeologists.

A pile of roman coins in a jam jar is not worth that much. A properly retrieved trove is another matter.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

The Romans were pretty well Romanised at this point. Britain (along with other provinces) broke away from Rome on two occasions during the chaotic late third Century. In 268 under Postumus, as part of the seccessionis Anglo-Gallic Empire, and again under Carausius in 286.
On both of these occasions, the rebellious governments formed themselves along Roman lines, with Roman style coinage, a Senate, and Roman-Style armies (indeed, the secessionist 'Emperors' were Roman Military commanders who rebelled.

One of the chief reasons why provinces like Britain were willing to support seccesion was that, due to the chaos and civil war that was ravaging Rome at this time, Rome was unable to protect backwater provinces like Britain from raiding barbarians and pirates, because the various Roman Emperors where too busy fighting other pretenders, rival emperors, barbarians and usurpers closer to home. The secessionist Emperors were relatively successful because they could focus on outside threats more because they were based more locally and were willing to focus more resources on protect Britain and Gaul's borders from pirates and Barbarians.

It wasn't until 410 that Rome finally and formally abdicated its responsibility towards Britain and told the RomanBritish that they were on their own and to look to their own defences. Shortly afterwards, the Angles, Jutes and Saxons started arriving in droves and eventually occupied what is now England drove out the natives (or at least their culture) and took it over...

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

The British were pretty well Romanised at this point. Britain (along with other provinces) broke away from Rome on two occasions during the chaotic late third Century. In 268 under Postumus, as part of the seccessionis Anglo-Gallic Empire, and again under Carausius in 286.
On both of these occasions, the rebellious governments formed themselves along Roman lines, with Roman style coinage, a Senate, and Roman-Style armies (indeed, the secessionist 'Emperors' were Roman Military commanders who rebelled.

One of the chief reasons why provinces like Britain were willing to support seccesion was that, due to the chaos and civil war that was ravaging Rome at this time, Rome was unable to protect backwater provinces like Britain from raiding barbarians and pirates, because the various Roman Emperors where too busy fighting other pretenders, rival emperors, barbarians and usurpers closer to home. The secessionist Emperors were relatively successful because they could focus on outside threats more because they were based more locally and were willing to focus more resources on protect Britain and Gaul's borders from pirates and Barbarians.

It wasn't until 410 that Rome finally and formally abdicated its responsibility towards Britain and told the RomanBritish that they were on their own and to look to their own defences. Shortly afterwards, the Angles, Jutes and Saxons started arriving in droves and eventually occupied what is now England drove out the natives (or at least their culture) and took it over...

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

Certainly makes my job easier...:)

[painter]

Any opinion on the worth?

The article said something like 5 million dollars.

Talk about finding buried treasure!

[Stentor]

Treasure hunter unearths Britain's largest ever hoard of Roman coins

"Under the 1996 Treasure Act, anyone who finds a group of buried coins has to declare it to the coroner within two weeks. If the coins are bought, as planned, by the Museum of Somerset, the reward will shared between Mr Crisp and the landowner."