Stash of Coins Found at UK Site

A new story of another hoard found, maybe some other sites will get better pics.

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2016/01/stash-of-roman-coins-found-at-uk.html

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Vespasian through Severus Alexander shows in the photo with more Septimius than anything else.

 

http://archaeology-in-europe.blogspot.com/2016_01_01_archive.html
This one shows a Herennia Etrucilla and gives a burial date of 270 so there must have been later as well.

 

More info/pics:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...us-emperors-elephant-hippo-worth-175-000.html

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...us-emperors-elephant-hippo-worth-175-000.html

This one takes it to Volusian still short of 270.

 

EEK - those are harshly abused/cleaned

 

Harshly abused?

 

Found half an hour from me!

 

The headline gives 270 as the earliest date. Whether this is accurate or not?

"JCB driver finds hoard of 3,000 Roman coins: Rare monies buried in 270AD bear images of emperors, an elephant and a hippo - and could be worth £175,000"

 

Dates for hoards are based on the newest coin in the group so we assume that there was one or more coin dating 270 included. It is possible with a broken pot that there was a single coin of that date lost on top of the spot where the pot was buried and it got mixed in. None of the photos we have seen so far includes the 270 coin. It is always possible that a hoard could be buried later than the latest coin date. If II buried the jar of wheat cents I pulled from circulation last year, archaeologists of 3016 might be fooled into thinking the hoard was buried in 1958 unless it bothered them that none of the 1958 coins were unworn as they should be if the hoard was buried that year.

 

As usual with such sensational news outlets (and those ignorant (or maybe not) finders), the value is grossly exaggerated. All these articles have discrepancies of total numbers of specific coins, and mostly importantly, nothing about actual quality. I would assume that the published photos represent the best of the hoard. The rest are likely poorly preserved or heavily worn. It's not unlike treasure hunters here in the US. Find a Spanish galleon, tell everyone a coin is worth $5,000 (when they actively trade on the market for maybe $150). Still, very cool that those Brits can find such awesome stuff in their 'backyards'!

 

Thanks Mat! LOL, with such a "flooding" of coins in the Market, maybe all the dealers will have to lower their prices by 90% or so...

Just gittin' y'all's goat!

 

So far I can't say I've seen much over a $100 coin but we can't say what the hoard is worth until we see the condition of the two or three good coins in the group. Out of 3000 coins there is a possibility of a VF Dyrantilla or two worth more than a thousand Philips in VG. Obviously the writers of the media releases have not seen or would not understand a full report. The photo of the half cleaned Volusian suggests that there might be a few coins not yet identified. What would be the value of 3000 coins averaging what we have seen? Perhaps a quarter of the number thrown about in the press release. What would be the value of a handful of EF good ones? About the same as the other 3000 is my guess. Only time will tell.

 

Often pots were buried with a stone on top and the person depositing would add to the pot every year or so. The oldest coin I have in my wallet is 1984. If I put this in a pot and then added coins for the next 20 years the oldest to newest span would be 52 years. Assume I put a few coins my grandad gave me which are 100 years old in the pot, the span is now much larger. All very obvious I know. This is why having archaeologists attend a hoard find ASAP is so important as they will take layers from the pot and analyse whether they are of the same date or whether the most recent coins are near the top. This helps with context ie. Why was it buried. It could be savings added to over time or stashing wealth in times of turmoil, or a votive offering.

 

The chances of the coins all being very good are high. Hoard material is generally good with metal which oxidises easily such as bronze as coins protect each other from water and the soil which nowadays usually contains fertilisers. Silver should be better still and I would expect the majority of coins to be preserved close to the state they were in when deposited. Even if they do become encrusted, they will clean up very well.... They always do in my experience.

 

Another question: Lets say the better coins have been shown and would retail for $100-200 each. The coins will be sold as a lot or broken into several large groups so dealers would not be paying full retail when expected to buy a thousand or even a hundred. At what level do finders and landowners get reimbursed when a museum buys the whole thing for their basement storeroom? If one is worth $100 in a CNG sale, how much will the finder get for his share of 3000? We have no way of knowing how many of these will filter into the market and whether the market wants 3000 ordinaries to get that handful of super coins.

 

Articles state a local museum wants to buy them and put them on "display".

 

A valuation committee will give a market value, which I have always found to be lowball.

 

Yeah what do they need to display 3000 of them for? I'm sure a few will suffice. Sounds like it might end up in the courts with disputed ownership.

I once went to a museum in Venice where Roman Republic era coins through Doge coins were just strewn in piles in display cases. I hope that these coins are at least displayed appropriately.

 

Hmm... this topic is getting sideways quick! At the moment we dont know much of anything. Value could be as they say, maybe $200,000, but at the end maybe $2,000. We are just speculating, and worse, the 'archaeologists' are also speculating (and they are the last ones to know the value of anything!). Lots of speculations, and in some messages here, wow, just weird fantasy. Only time will tell here.