Posted on 02/24/2004 5:12:49 PM PST by blam
Rare coin find stuns historians
A man with a metal detector has unearthed a Roman bronze coin so rare it bears the face of a mystery emperor who "ruled" Britain for a matter of days.
Brian Malin, from Oxfordshire, found it in a field in the county.
It bears the face of Emperor Domitianus and is only the second coin ever found which bears the image of the self-proclaimed ruler of Britain and France in 271AD.
A similar coin was found in France 100 years ago but until now its uniqueness had meant both Emperor Domitianus and the coin were dismissed as a hoax.
Historians say the British discovery confirms the French find is genuine and Domitianus existed.
They believe he was an upstart from the Roman legion who was ousted for treason for daring to declare himself emperor and have the coins made.
Mr Malin found the coin in a field 10 miles south-east of Oxford.
The coin was among a pot of 5,000 all bearing the heads of emperors and stuck together, providing the perfect "timeline" for archaeologists.
He handed his find to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford which passed it to experts at the British Museum who began separating the coins.
The coins dating from 250AD to the mid 270sAD spanned five emperors during a time of great upheaval for the Roman empire.
The Domitianus coin is going on display at the British Museum.
Story filed: 18:13 Tuesday 24th February 2004
No. It says treasure other than coinage must be gols or silver.
Domitianus was proclaimed emperor at the beginning of Aurelian's reign, but killed soon afterwards [[45]]. His rebellion seems to have been the result of the barbaric invasions at the beginning of Aurelian's reign (see above chapter 1.4.) [[46]]. He perhaps is to be identified with the general Domitianus who is said to have defeated the Macriani about A.D. 261 [[47]]. The only coin minted in the name of Domitianus is probably a forgery [[48]].
Man, sounds like he won't get a dime for it.
When asked to comment on the coin, a Ashmolean Museum representative stated 'What coin?'
LOL!
I guess he didn't like dancing the Macriani either.
We have a law in this state that all public construction must be preceded by an "archaeological survey" of the site, that is, before the power-shovels move in, an archaeological team must dig around and determine the "value" of the site. Is it an indian burial ground? A forgotten colonial village? Etc. etc.
Anyway, here we are just post-9/11 and some new buildings are being plotted on Camp (name omitted.) A survey is being undertaken on the site by a professor-emeritus of an Ivy university not far away, and two grad students. After 9/11, Threatcon C is announced and the installation "centralizes" parking of vehicles in a lot just inside the main gate. The "surveyors" from Ivy U. must hump their gear a half-mile over a not-too-gentle parade field to the survey site. And they've got a lot of gear.
One chilly morning in October, driving my guard vehicle (a CUCV Blazer,) I offered the grad-student of the day a lift over to the dig site. She could put her wheelbarrow, shovels, sieves, trowels, etc in the back and I would truck her right over there. Well, sir, she gave me a look such as I hadn't seen since I got back from Vietnam to San Francisco Int'l Airport in August of '66! It was as if I had lice crawling out of my eyebrows! So I retired from the scene, vowing not to extend myself to these birds again.
The next night, still feeling the sting of her scorn, and perhaps a little vindictive, I drove by the dig-site in the light of the moon: there it was -- three or four trenches about a yard wide and six to ten feet long, dug at odd angles. A mound of spoil marked where the diggers had shoveled and sieved three or four feet deep of the sand and underlying clay. Hmm -- they were down to the clay.
When I was part of the Sinai peacekeeping force (MFO) a few years earlier, I had occasion to go to Israel a few times. In Jerusalem, I had bought a bunch of cheap souvenirs, some of which I still had -- in fact, I had a little plastic bag of six or eight bronze Phonecian/Roman coin replicas. Jeez, they really looked like the real thing! So what could bring more excitement to these proceedings of the archaeologists than to find something a little... special? So -- it was only natural that on my next circuit of the post, I got out and planted a few bronze "surprises" for them to come up with. Haven't heard anything since, but you really don't know: these academics play things close to the chest. We may never know if they found them until the the next Nobel Prizes are announced!
It's best to remove the "BC," as well as the "made in China" stamp, prior to appraisal.
"The original Domitianus antoninianus (RIC V.2, pl. XX.12) was defended as unquestionably authentic by Marcus Weder in Swiss Numismatic Review 76, 1997. The two coins seem to be from very similar, but not the same obverse die."
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