Thread: Five Denarii

The gods were merciful this time. After a fairly long spell with no interesting finds, I was very fortunate to find these a few weeks ago, under pouring rain, all spread along a footpath.

A denarius of Vespasian with Reverse Annona, one of Titus with Genius on a rostral column. Two domitians, one with Pegaus on the reverse, and lastly, surprisingly, a Legionary denarius in low condition. Only the Vespasian and one of the Domitians needed cleaning. The others are as they lay for 1900 years.

Originally Posted by Eduard

The gods were merciful this time. After a fairly long spell with no interesting finds, I was very fortunate to find these a few weeks ago, under pouring rain, all spread along a footpath.

A denarius of Vespasian with Reverse Annona, one of Titus with Genius on a rostral column. Two domitians, one with Pegaus on the reverse, and lastly, surprisingly, a Legionary denarius in low condition. Only the Vespasian and one of the Domitians needed cleaning. The others are as they lay for 1900 years.

Beautiful coins.

Near what city did you find these?


guy

Nice Romans Eduard.... Hard to get decent roman silver of a pegasus and a marc Anthony is always welcome. Traci

Very nice! Can you tell us more about the context? To find a well-worn Legionary denarius with a group of high-grade late 1st century denarii is not at all surpriseng - these things circulated FOREVER because of their lower silver content.

Originally Posted by Ardatirion

Very nice! Can you tell us more about the context? To find a well-worn Legionary denarius with a group of high-grade late 1st century denarii is not at all surpriseng - these things circulated FOREVER because of their lower silver content.

It was quite unspectacular really. I found these along a footpath in a forest where 10-12 years ago I had already found a Vitellius denarius. People go there for a walk on the weekends, ride their bikes, or walk their dogs, as the area is densily populated and the woods is surrounded by villages. I always thought it was incredible that this footpath had already existed 2000 years ago. On this day I decided to search more the shoulder of the footpath before going home as it was raining like ****. And lo and behold, I soon started getting signals one after the other. Not more than 5-10 cm deep I found these 5 - all within a few feet of each other. My guess is they could have been dropped by a passing rider. Of course I searched the entire area, but there were no more to be found. I wish every outing was like this!...this was really a stroke of luck, and the overall condition of the coins is good, if not exceptional. The Domitian has a very nice bust.
Here are pictures of the coins as they came out of the earth:

It must be something to detect in Germany. Here in the U.S., the oldest coins we can hope to find are from the 16th century. I haven't found anything older than 1908, but I don't detect a lot.

awsome finds!

Originally Posted by TheBigH

It must be something to detect in Germany.

Guess that depends on the state. Don't do any "detecting" myself, but as far as I know, the regulations here in DE, regarding what you can do and what you may keep, vary widely from state to state. Eduard will probably know more about that ...

Christian

Originally Posted by chrisild

Guess that depends on the state. Don't do any "detecting" myself, but as far as I know, the regulations here in DE, regarding what you can do and what you may keep, vary widely from state to state. Eduard will probably know more about that ...

Christian

There are strict rules concerning where to detect, and they do vary from state to state: as a general rule, stay well away from any historically significant and archeological sites. Do not disturb private property, and GET the owners permission to search elsewhere, for example fields. That is what I do, as most farmers are quite approachable if you ask them, and they will even guide you along. EVERY field has something. Just need to find it!

Originally Posted by Eduard

There are strict rules concerning where to detect, and they do vary from state to state: as a general rule, stay well away from any historically significant and archeological sites. Do not disturb private property, and GET the owners permission to search elsewhere, for example fields. That is what I do, as most farmers are quite approachable if you ask them, and they will even guide you along. EVERY field has something. Just need to find it!

The rules are nearly identical in the U.S. Here, we have blue signs that mark historically significant areas, and you can't get any where near them with a metal detector. If you try to do it on private property without permission, the authorities might take your metal detector away. Usually people will give permission, but sometimes they don't because they're afraid you might hurt yourself and sue them.

Originally Posted by Ardatirion

Very nice! Can you tell us more about the context? To find a well-worn Legionary denarius with a group of high-grade late 1st century denarii is not at all surpriseng - these things circulated FOREVER because of their lower silver content.

I wrote this a few months ago at a non-coin site on the web that deals with Ancient Roman History:

David Vagi, in his book Coinage and History of the Roman Empire, states: "It is well documented both by literary and archaeological evidence that ancient coins circulated for centuries. An excellent example is the countermarking of older, worn coins in the east by the emperor Vespasian in the early AD 70s. The majority of these denarii were at least a century old at the time they were countermarked."

He adds, "The issuance of Imperial cistophori by the emperor Hadrian (117-138) is similarly convincing. Most (if not all) of the planchets used were older cistophori issued some 100 to 150 years earlier. We have no reason to doubt that these "host" coins (the coins that were overstruck) had been in circulation up until the time they were withdrawn for re-coining."

A possible analogy would be the modern use of Indian Head pennies in the US or Queen Victoria pennies in Great Britain[?].

I imagine that with the debasement of Roman silver coinage in the
mid-200's, hoarding became more common. (When was the last time someone found a real silver coin in circulation; e.g., a Mercury Head dime or even a pre-1964 silver quarter?) Interestingly, Vagi asserts that the gold coinage typically did not suffer the same debasement as the silver coinage, but maintained their purity, even in the late Roman Empire. Gold coins, however, did suffer a reduction in size.

guy

Excellent finds!