Category: numismatica

testing blogsy

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

Just seeing if this might be an alternative platform when I'm away from my laptop …

BBC News – Gold and silver traces 'may be in Jersey coin hoard'

… hopefully I'll properly blog this one later …

The coin hoard which dates from 50BC weighs about three quarters of a tonne

Traces of gold and silver may be buried within the hoard of Roman and Celtic coins found in Jersey last week.

Olga Finch, curator of archaeology at Jersey Heritage, said: “We have spotted traces of jewellery, a piece of twisted silver and little thin sheets of gold with a hint of decoration on the edge.”

She said once they had removed the items they could be identified.

The 50,000 coins, thought to be worth up to £200 each, were found by two metal detectorists last week.

The find was believed to be one of Europe's largest hoards of ancient coins and weighed about three quarters of a tonne.

'Exciting discoveries'

Ms Finch said: “The fact that there are traces of jewellery and person ornaments and belongings, it puts a whole new dimension to it.”

The hoard was discovered after more than 30 years of searching by Reg Mead and Richard Miles.

Now Jersey Heritage staff are working with the Société Jersiaise and experts from the British Museum to build a clearer picture of what was found.

Neil Mahrer, conservator with Jersey Heritage, said: “As we unravel the story behind the hoard we are beginning to make some very exciting discoveries.”

He said the coins were of Armorican origin – the modern day Brittany and Normandy in France – and were from a tribe called the Coriosolitae, who were based around Rance in the area of modern-day Saint Malo and Dinan.

Neil Mahrer said: “As we unravel the story behind the hoard we are beginning to make some very exciting discoveries”

He said the coins dated from the time the armies of Julius Caesar were advancing north-westwards through France, driving the tribal communities towards the coast.

“Some of them would have crossed the sea to Jersey, finding a safe place of refuge away from Caesar's campaigns,” Mr Mahrer.

“The only safe way to store their wealth was to bury it in a secret place.”

The hoard has been reported to the HM Receiver General who will determine its status.

 

Wired Gets All Wired Up About a Denarius

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I’m sure most of you have seen this — it’s been making the rounds these past couple of days — from Wired:

*This one features the Moon driving her chariot over a housefly.

*I can’t doubt that this made perfect sense at the time. It’s like: you got drunk, and you went to the gladiatorial games, and you watched half a dozen guys get slaughtered. And then you were broke. And hung over. And then you asked your friend, Julius: “Hey. Can you loan me a couple of houseflies? Just to tide me over till payday?”

“No problem, buddy.” Clink. Clink.

… accompanied by a very large photo:

It was also accompanied by a link to the British Museum catalog, whence it presumably came, but, alas, it didn’t work. So for those of you who were wondering, it’s a Denarius dated to 179-170 B.C. … official description:

(obverse) Helmeted head of Roma, right; behind, denominational mark. Border of dots.
(reverse) Luna in biga, right, with horses prancing; below, mark; in exergue, inscription. Line border.

... the ‘fly’ is designated as an inscription. The BM has several examples of this coin (here, here, here, here, etc.)

The fly is curious, but the one I’ve always wondered about is the grasshopper, e.g. on this one from the 90s B.C.:

… or this one from 92 B.C.:

I’ve often wondered whether these little things (which are often beneath the rearing feet of a horse) are some sort of family/national symbol or something, but have never been able to check that out. Does the grasshopper indicate a year when grain was threatened and the threat averted? Was the moneyer’s family rewarded with an agnomen because of it? Was including the grasshopper the fulfillment of some sort of vow?

Massive Roman Coin Find from Wiltshire

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What will likely be a pile of coverage just starting on this one … here’s  the incipit what the Telegraph says:

David Crisp, a 63-year-old hospital chef, located the 52,503 coins in a single earthenware pot in a field near Frome, Somerset.

Mr Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire, said his detector gave a “funny signal” prompting him to dig down and have a look.

What he found was an astonishing collection of coins from the 3rd century AD, a period barely touched in most history books on Roman Britain.

“The joy of metal detecting is that you never know what you will find,” said Mr Crisp, who has been sweeping the fields for 20 years.

“I always live in hope but didn’t expect to find something like this.”

All the coins had been left in a single two-foot-high pot. At 160kg – just over 25 stone – the haul weighs as much as two fully grown men.

It is slightly smaller than the largest ever British Roman coin hoard, of 54,912 pieces, found in two pots near Marlborough, Wilts, in 1978.

A selection of the Frome coins, found in April, is to go on display at the British Museum from July 22 until mid-August.

Roger Bland, its head of portable antiquities and treasure, said 766 coins were from the reign of the “lost” British emperor Carausius, who ruled the province from 286 to 293 without the authority of Rome.

Carausius fell out of favour with the Roman Emperor Maximian after he used his Channel fleet to amass enormous wealth by capturing pirate ships.

Maximian ordered his execution but the rebel refused to submit and ruled Britain and northern Gaul in defiance of Rome.

He became the first emperor to strike coins in Britain, which he did to affirm his legitimacy. Five of the Carausius coins are solid silver, the first such pure coins minted anywhere in the Roman empire in over 150 years.

Despite the Frome haul’s quantity, most are a relatively common denomination known as ‘radiates’, made of debased silver and bronze. The haul is likely to be worth around £250,000, given prices for individual coins. […]

The BBC has a nice little video interview with the finder, which includes some good shots of what was found and which also causes one to think that we really need to start using a word other than ‘hoard’ to describe these things ….

Daniel Pett (of Portable Antiquities fame) has an excellent/extensive photoset of coins from the hoard at Flickr …

Other coverage:

Non-Destructive Analysis of Coinage

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Interesting …

Demonstrating that chemistry sometimes can inform history, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Colorado College and Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., have shown that sensitive nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques can be used to determine the elemental composition of ancient coins, even coins that generally have been considered too corroded for such methods*. Along the way, the researchers’ analysis of coins minted in ancient Judea has raised new questions about who ruled the area while giving insight into trading patterns and industry in the region.

Elemental and isotope analysis of the metals in ancient artifacts sometimes can pinpoint the places where the metal was mined, because ores in a given region often have a unique composition. This can be combined with historical records of when mines in the area were operating to determine when the coin was likely struck. The results not only help date the coin, but also offer insight into trade and power relationships in the region.

To compare the effectiveness of various nondestructive analytical methods with destructive methods often used to determine the age and origin of ancient coins, the group studied coins minted by Kings Herod Agrippa I and Agrippa II in what is modern day Palestine and Israel, a biblically and historically significant period.

The vast numbers of a particular coin, a prutah, found in the archaeological record has led scholars to disagree about when they were struck and by whom. The provenance of the coin is important because it is used to establish dates for places and events in the early years of Christianity and the onset of the Jewish War (66-70 CE) against the Romans and the Diaspora that followed.

To better establish whether the coins were minted by Agrippa I (41-45 CE) or Agrippa II (after 61 CE), the team performed X-ray fluorescence and lead isotope analysis to fingerprint the ores used in the production of the coins. These NDE methods are not commonly used on corroded coins because the corrosion can affect the results—in some cases making it difficult to get a result at all. The team showed that these problems could be overcome using polarizing optics and powerful new software for X-ray fluorescence analysis, combined with careful calibration of the mass spectrometer using Standard Reference Materials from NIST**.

The lead isotope analysis, performed at NIST, showed that the coins that had been attributed to Agrippa I were indeed from that era. More interestingly, however, the group found that the copper from which the coins were made most likely came from mines that scholars thought hadn’t been opened until a century later.

“All the archaeological evidence has thus far suggested that the Romans had moved into Arabia in the 2nd century CE,” says Nathan Bower of Colorado College. “What this analysis shows is that the Romans may have reached the region earlier or found that these mines had already been opened. Either way, our findings suggest that the Romans had a much closer relationship with this particular region than scholars had previously thought.”

To follow up on their research, the group is planning to perform more tests to determine if the mines in question may have been operating even earlier than their recent findings suggest.

via NDE methods for evaluating ancient coins could be worth their weight in gold | Eurekalert.

Commemorating Rome on the Danube

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Interesting press release from the Austrian Mint:

For some five centuries the River Danube formed an essential part of ancient Rome’s northern border against the barbarian tribes of Germania. The Austrian Mint’s new silver series called “Rome on the Danube” breathes life back into the ruined remains of the towns and forts that played such prominent roles in the life of the Roman Empire in Austria.

The province of Noricum covered about two-thirds of modern day Austrian territory. It had been originally a kingdom of Celtic tribes until it was taken over by the Romans in a peaceful occu-pation under the Emperor Augustus in about 15 B.C. Thirty years later the Emperor Claudius converted Noricum into a regular Roman province and established the city of VIRUNUM as its adminis-trative capital. Military command was vested not in the governor at Virunum, but rather in the commander of the legions standing guard along the River Danube in the north. The governor was ap-pointed by the emperor in Rome. His primary responsibility was for finance and taxation as well as for the administration of Roman law and order. His capital stood on a Roman road connecting it to Aquileia in the south and to Ovilava (Wels) in the north and the Limes or string of forts and towers guarding the Danube border.

Virunum was the cultural centre of life in Noricum with the only great amphitheatre to have been discovered on Austrian territory. Built on the classical Roman system of a rectangular grid of streets with large open forums housing temples and grand basilicas, Virunum was an unfortified township like many other such settlements – a tribute to the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace). The streets were unpaved, but the city had a plentiful supply of water feeding public fountains and a good drainage system with lead piping. On an artificially built terrace above the city were a military camp and an elliptically shaped arena for animal and gladiatorial combat, as well as military exer-cises and training or parades.
The lack of walls rendered Virunum vulnerable to marauding tribes that managed to cross the Danube and raid the rich Roman province of Noricum, and in times of weakness and turmoil the city did fall prey to plundering barbarians. In the early Chris-tian era Virunum had its own bishop and church. Exactly when the city was abandoned we do not know, but abandoned it was. Its noble buildings of stone and marble became quarries for building materials, until the earth itself decently covered over the wounds of its ruins, leaving it to modern archaeologists to re-awaken Roman Virunum once more from its centuries’ long sleep.

The new 20 Euro silver coin shows a profile portrait of the Emperor Claudius, who founded Virunum (“Municipium Claudium Virunum”). In the background one sees a Roman wagon drawn by a pair of horses. It is part of a grave stone from Virunum, pres-ently affixed to the south wall of the church in neighbouring Maria-Saal. The reverse side displays an imaginary street scene. A Roman wagon drives past the portico of a temple. At the back rise the high walls and roof of a grand basilica. In the foreground to the left we find a blacksmith hammering the highly-prized Noric iron into swords for the Roman legions. The name at the base of the coin identifies the city as Virunum.
via the Austrian Mint
The new € 20 silver coin is struck in proof quality only and to maximum mintage of 50,000 worldwide. Each coin comes in an attractive box with a numbered certificate of authenticity. A collection case for the whole series of six coins may be purchased separately.

In September the second coin of the series, “VINDOBONA” (Vienna), will be issued.