Latest news with #RomanCoins
BBC News
06-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Great Ellingham hoard find worth Roman legionary's monthly wage
A Roman silver coin hoard worth almost the same as a legionary's monthly wage in the 2nd Century has been uncovered by a metal detectorist. The discovery of 25 coins was made in a field near Great Ellingham, north of Attleborough, Norfolk, with the latest denarius unearthed in 2023. Coin expert Adrian Marsden said the purse loss was probably disturbed by a plough "and had been sloshing around in a field ever since". It is one of two denarius hoards currently going through the treasure process in Norfolk. Dr Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, said: "A silver denarius is reasonably valuable and about one day's pay for a legionary, so with the Great Ellingham hoard we're looking at nearly a month's wages - they were well paid."Legionaries were the Roman Empire's citizen soldiers, men who had to meet strict physical and social requirements for meant they had to be at least 1.72m (5ft7in) tall, needed a letter of recommendation, faced gruelling training and had to take an oath to serve in the army for at least 25 retirement, they received a pension worth a decade's pay. The second hoard of 13 denarii was found near Walpole Highway, a village north of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Coins in both hoards range from the AD60s to AD180s, including for emperors such as Trajan, his cousin Hadrian and Marcus also include coins minted for imperial wives such as Faustina I, her daughter Faustina II - and Sabina."What's nice about these little silver denarii is the people in them are instantly recognisable, with hooked noses or beards," said Dr Marsden."If you walk around a Roman sculpture collection, you can pick them out one by one - and they are not idealised like later Christian emperors, these are real people getting the warts and all treatment on the coinage."In the vast 2nd Century empire, stretching from the Tigris-Euphrates river system in Turkey to the borders of Scotland, "it's certain everyone knows what the emperor looks like as a result of coins," the numismatist added. If declared treasure, museums will get first refusal over whether to acquire the hoards. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
15-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Downham Market coin hoard 'probably lost by a Roman invader'
A hoard of 13 silver coins found in a field was probably lost in the wake of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, according to a historian. The discovery was made by a metal detectorist in a field near Downham Market, Norfolk, in September and is the subject of a treasure inquest. The denarii date from the late 2nd Century BC, in the last tumultuous decades of the Roman republic, to the first Roman emperors and could have been a purse loss."Of course, we've no way of knowing whose it was, but it could have been lost by one of the invaders," said coin expert Adrian Marsden. The Roman Republic lasted from 509 to 27BC and a series of unrest and civil wars in the 1st Century BC marked its transition to an empire. "The oldest coin in the hoard dates back to 152BC and has worn smooth over the two centuries it was in use," said Dr Marsden, a numismatist from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service."This reveals they've got a stable economy, without changes to the denominations, so coins like this can remain in circulation for a long, long time."One of denarii was struck by the Roman dictator Sulla (138 to 79BC), who won the first full-scale civil war in Roman history."Another was struck by Julius Caesar [about 100 to 44BC] a couple of years before he was assassinated, a second by Mark Antony [83 to 30BC] and a third by his rival and winner of that civil war, the first Roman emperor Augustus [63BC to AD14]," said Dr Marsden. The most recent coin of the 13 came from the reign of Octavian's stepson, the second emperor Tiberius (AD14 to 37).It was the latter's nephew, the emperor Claudius (10BC to 54AD), who ordered the invasion of Britain in AD43, eventually leading to a Romano-British province which lasted until 5th Century. Dr Marsden described it as "one of the more interesting" hoards to cross his desk in the past year."It is earlier than most of the silver denarii hoards we see and it's got this drum roll of coins from the late republic through to the early empire," he said.A coroner decides if a discovery is treasure and a museum usually gets first refusal over whether to add it to its this case, the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn hopes to be able to acquire it. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
