Posted on 07/22/2011 4:51:17 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A hoard of twenty one silver denarii has been recovered during the recent excavation of the foundations of a clay floor in a centurion's apartment of the late Antonine period (cAD180-200) at Vindolanda, northeast England.
The hoard had been buried, possibly in a purse or some similar organic package which had long since rotted away, in a shallow pit within the foundation material of the floor of the structure in the middle of the room.
Dr Andrew Birley, director of excavations at the site explains, "The coins were tightly packed together and several had corroded onto one another, held together as a group by the foundation clay of the building on the surrounding packaging that had rotted away. The surface area covered by the coins was no greater than 10cms, suggesting that there had been little movement by post depositional processes. The archaeological context suggests that the hoard may well have been deliberately buried, rather than lost, and was probably the savings of an individual who was unable to recover his money."
Twenty-one denarii in the late second century represented a substantial sum being roughly one tenth of a ranking auxiliary's gross annual salary and the equivalent of perhaps two or three thousand pounds in today's money.
The hoard has now been conserved at Vindolanda and reported as treasure trove under the 1996 Treasure Act. It is hoped that the hoard will remain at Vindolanda, as part of the site archive, and for public display at the Vindolanda Trust's site museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
Probably bought up as much silver as possible to survive the coming depression, and then got hit by a chariot. :-)
Probably a good guess. And his successors probably walked over and over the burial spot for at least a generation, maybe much longer. Lucky for us. :’)
Sometimes I’m beguiled by the prospect of collecting ancient coins, but somehow I always resist the urge.
As long as one doesn’t need it in that interval, it should be cool.
I once knew someone (grew up in the UK) who was a bit of a ne’er do well, and he told me about his exploits of metal detector-ing across the British landscape. He didn’t quite come right out and say specifics, only that it was a living for a while.
It’s a challenge to find any buried ancient coins, even from Roman times, because currency was generally carried rather than buried, and if lost, probably the next person wandering by at that time picked them up.
The treasury from the Temple of Isis in Pompeii was found still clutched (I think still in the leather bag) in the hand of the skeleton of one of the priests or other temple employees.
Archaeologists discover a hoard of silver Roman denarii coins at Vindolanda -- A hoard of twenty-one silver denarii has been recovered during the recent excavation of the foundations of a clay floor in a centurion's apartment of the late Antonine period (cAD180-200) at Vindolanda. The hoard had been buried, possibly in a purse or some similar organic package which had long since rotted away, in a shallow pit within the foundation material of the floor of the structure in the middle of the room.
Dr Andrew Birley -- director of excavations at the site explains "The coins were tightly packed together and several had corroded onto one another, held together as a group by the foundation clay of the building on the surrounding packaging that had rotted away. The surface area covered by the coins was no greater than 10cms, suggesting that there had been little movement by post depositional processes. The archaeological context suggests that the hoard may well have been deliberately buried, rather than lost, and was probably the savings of an individual who was unable to recover his money."
Twenty-one denarii in the late second century represented a substantial sum being roughly one tenth of a ranking auxiliary's gross annual salary and the equivalent of perhaps two or three thousand pounds in today's money.
The hoard has now been conserved at Vindolanda and reported as treasure trove under the 1996 Treasure Act. It is hoped that the hoard will remain at Vindolanda, as part of the site archive, and for public display at the Vindolanda Trust's site museum.
As I understand it, in later centuries the Denarius became a gold coin in the Byzantine Empire, and was copied by the Muslims as the dinar, still the name of coins in a number of Arab states.
I'm completely addicted. Nothing beats getting a hoard of dirt covered crusty bronze Roman coins in the mail.
:’)
That seems to be the origin of the name. Roman-era denarii remained in circulation for a long while, and of course the Romans owned a chunk of Arabia and other areas with Arab populations. The Byzantines held chunks of the former eastern areas of the Roman Empire, and under Justinian reconquered Italy and so on. Thanks to the location of the capital, trade made the economy great, and they minted a buttload of coins in gold (they’re nice-sized too), following a couple centuries of “debased” coinage of the older empire.
I've told this story on Free Republic before, so excuse me if you've heard it before. When I was in the Army in Germany our Roman Catholic chaplain was a local German priest who had spent the War in Dachau for anti-Nazi activities. He had been the chaplain to the Brothers of Abbey Gruessau in eastern Germany before the war. The Abbey had been seized by the Nazis and the brothers had met the same fate as our Chaplain.
After the War, the Russians commandeered the Abbey as the headquarters of a tank battalion. General Patton, who was military commander of the area that included Dachau after the war, met with the Chaplain and "awarded" him and the brothers a disused cathedral and grounds in Bad Wimpfen, in an area that became Protestant after the 30 Years War (1618-1648).
The area around Bad Wimpfen, on the Neckar river, had been the frontier of the Roman Empire in the Third Century AD, there are scattered Roman ruins, including a partial aqueduct in the area. As the brothers worked the grounds of the Cathedral, planting gardens and vetable patches, they continually uncovered gold Roman coins, stored in the same manner as those in this story.
I recall the chaplain one time showed me the center drawer of his desk. It was filled with gold Roman coins that had been found on the grounds. I really wished that he had not shown that to me and worried whom else he might have shown them to. I never spoke about them until about 2010, long after the brothers of Abbey Gruessau and the Chaplain were all dead. As far as I know, they didn't feel any obligation to report their finds to the local German authorities.
Cool! Closest thing to that I’ve seen (and it’s not really close) was a large shoebox FULL of amazing, pristine indian arrowheads found by a farmer’s daughter out in freshly plowed fields in SE Missouri back in the 1950s. I have one of them, given as a gift, that you could mount on a shaft today, it’s at least 2” long. The finder let me pick one of my choice.
I’m not sure of the linkage from the Spanish Piece of Eight going back in time, but it did become the basis of our silver dollar. Like railroad gauges spanning millenia, some coins go on and on from empire to empire.
Exactly.
Beggar: “Half a denarii for my whole life’s story?”
Brian: “There no pleasing some people.”
Beggar: “That’s what Jesus said!”
- Monty Python’s Life of Brian
The American dollar was modeled after the Spanish dollar, which, interestingly, was modeled after the "thaler" issued by Austria. The Spanish dollar was legal tender in America into the 1850's.
The lack of a single federal currency meandered into the post-Civil War era. One of the consequences of the addition of more and more western states after the Civil War, as well as the war itself, was the obvious need for a standard national currency. Banks issued currency locally, under regulation by the states (see, that’ll make a lot of people happy), and were required to keep the amount of notes at or less than the amount of backing gold and/or silver. As the economies grew, the number of notes grew with it, and the banks concocted imaginative ways to circumvent the requirements.
The “wildcat” bank of Singapore Michigan vanished with the town itself (it was right near the Lake Michigan shoreline, but on the Kalamazoo River), but the building that housed it was removed (along with other buildings from Singapore’s former main drag), floated up to Saugatuck, and now houses a small, very cool upstairs bookstore. Live cat. Last time I was there. The proprietress self-publishes books on local history.
http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?/topic/22692-bank-of-singapore-michigan-note-collectors/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat_banking
Coins used to be larger or smaller depending on both the demand for currency and the availability of stuff out of which to make ‘em. Their value was fixed based on the then-current value of the commodity, which of course changed over time, and hence the coin types would fall out of production and eventually fall out of use, melted down for jewelry or recycled into other denominations and nationalities.
Early US and colonial currency is all kinds of stuff. Whatever anyone recognized would work. The Spanish 8 was 8 reals, so cutting it into eight pieces would make eight coins for circulation. Andrew Jackson’s currency reform pissed off a lot of lenders because they had (allegedly) loaned in gold, and were getting paid (allegedly) in silver. That’s one of those, what weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers, kinds of things, IMHO.
Somewhere I’ve got a III cent piece, which seems like an pretty odd coin to me. The UK currency prior to the currency reform (when the UK went decimal) looks a little cockeyed now. There was actually a kinda big-assed copper coin (again, I’ve got one somewhere) that was literally a Half Penny. The ha’penny started life as a regular copper that got cut in half to better supply the demand for currency.
http://www.victorianweb.org/economics/currency.html
Wow, LiM, that’s an excellent story! (Not least because of the Patton reference ;’) I wonder if they’ve kept it, or sold it off. It might make sense to unload it now. Over the weekend the old mom brought out a roll of silver dollars I’d wrapped up (makeshift, used a Bounty tube) around 40 years ago. One half or more of the coins were from the early 1920s, the oldest were 1880s. Those are one oz coins, so each one represents about forty bucks in silver right now, and there is a surprising number. It originated in the days when silver dollars were already rare, but remained in circulation, and people would save them in a drawer or whatnot against a need (such as a fridge, some home repair, or a used car, depending the how many coins and how cheap stuff was).
They should have used a (faked) conjoined twin, and asked for a full denarius for both life stories. ;’)
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