Hadrian Britannia

Hi,
New here.
I have the Hadrian Britannia As from an important collection. These coins are very hard to come by especially in decent condition. Seems that every British collector of Roman coins are after them as it is the first time Britannia appear in a coin.

The story goes after the Ninth Legion was destroyed, Hadrian visited Britain with a replacement legion. These coins were struck to commemorate the pacify of the Britons and secure of the northern border. The rocks under the right foot of the seated weeping Britannia has some historians to suggest as the foundation of the construction of Hadrian's Wall.

 

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Beautiful rarities! Thanks for sharing and

To coin talk!

 

Nobody knows for sure, I think, - why the Britannia reverse was resurrected in 1672 for the halfpennies and farthings of Charles II. However – they were the first “proper” copper coins to be issued in England since the Roman left.

Plans to issue official copper coins however went back at least to Elizabeth, so it looks likely there was some sort of opposition to their issue/use that held things up.

It occurs to me that the Britannia design was picked up as a bit of propaganda - there to hint to the knowledgeable 17th century guy something like:

“Hey, they were good enough for the Romans, so give ‘em a try”.

The design of course became well loved…...

 

Nice Britannia coins, everybody.

In the not so nice category, I recently obtained a scruffy VICT BRIT AE of Commodus - Victory has lost her head (presumably not over Brexit, ha ha).

According to OCRE and elsewhere online this has to be a sestertius. But it looks like an as - thin fabric, 13.8 grams weight, and a very coppery color. Contemporary copy? Barbaric imitation? Just worn to a nub? Opinions always appreciated.



Commodus Æ Sestertius
(184 A.D.) Rome Mint
[M C]OMMODVS [ANTON AVG PIVS BRIT], laureate head right / [P M TR P (VIIII or X?) IMP VII COS IIII P P S-C] VICT BRIT in ex, Victory seated right on pile of arms,
shields below, inscribing shield.
RIC 440 (VIIII) or 452a (X)
(13.80 grams / 26 mm)

 

I received a Hadrian Britannia As a few days ago and I'm currently cleaning it. It is encased in a rather thick and black chunk of muck, but I'm slowly making progress. It'll be rough and worn, but essential for my collection of coins connected to Britain.

This is a really interesting type, and I definitely think there's something unique about the coins found in Britain. The Antoninus Pius Britannia types (I have an As) are speculated as being minted in Britannia using Roman dies, and for good reason. More than 320 of the type were found during excavations at Coventina's Well, and they are regularly found by detectorists.

What I find odd is that I can find no trace of any discussion or articles about the inconsistencies between the Hadrian type and normal Asses minted in Rome at this time. A quick glance at the PAS website shows that the weights of the coins range from about 4.5-9g, many of them very under weight, and I find it improbable that this can be explained merely by corrosion. The flans are also often undersized. My example looks to be around 23mm and about 5.6g, but is clearly ancient.

I think that either they were struck at Rome at a lower weight for exportation, or cast or struck in Britain like the AP coins. The reason I lean more towards them being produced in Britain is that near contemporary coins found mostly in Britain (such as those in the document shared here called Coins of British Connection) generally have a much more standard weight.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this, or links to any appropriate reading.

 

I think you probably already saw this post on "Roman Coins of British Association," but just in case - there is an article link in there too. This is indeed an interesting topic.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/roman-coins-of-british-association-faustina-ii-as.334359/

 

I have, and I've saved the paper on my desktop. I plan on searching the PAS site for each of the types and comparing the numbers found to the popular auction sites to try and verify the observations in the original report. I've tried to track down a copy of the original book that the paper works from, but the best I could find was the ability to buy access to it for £12 from the Cambridge site. I'll probably end up doing that.

I now have the Antoninus Pius and Hadrian Britannia types identified by the paper, and hope to get hold of as many of the rest as is reasonable over the next few years.