Was hunting with a metal detector and found these at the site of a Roman garrison close to St. Ives, UK. Any help identifying these would be muchly appreciated.
1. Silver Antoninianus of Phillip I the Arab (244-249 A.D.) 2. Silver Tetradrachm of Phillip struck in Antioch Check out wildwinds.com for a full attribution...
This is the condition they were in when I pulled them from the ground. All I did was soak them in baby oil (no scrubbing).
About the first coin :"Adventus issues were minted in a particular city to celebrate the arrival of the emperor there. In this case, it was issued as part of a donative to the army upon Philip’s hasty return to Rome, following Gordian III’s death and the signing of what was widely regarded as a humiliating peace with the Persians". And about the reverse legend : ADVUNTVS ??
Question for those in the know: What are the odds that a provencial coin from so far away would end up well...so far away from home?
You found them in that contidtion or did you clean them? Were they buried? What are the laws in the UK concerning finding ancient coins?
UK Treasure act (1996) :When you find coins, an inquest led by the coroner then determines whether the find constitutes treasure or not. If it is declared to be treasure then the finder must offer the item for sale to a museum at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts known as the Treasure Valuation Committee. Only if a museum expresses no interest in the item, or is unable to purchase it, can the finder retain it. A "treasure" is defined as : All coins from the same find, if it consists of two or more coins, and as long as they are at least 300 years old when found. If they contain less than 10% gold or silver there must be at least 10 in the find for it to qualify. Two or more prehistoric base-metal objects in association with one another Any individual (non-coin) find that is at least 300 years old and contains at least 10% gold or silver. Associated finds: any object of any material found in the same place as (or which had previously been together with) another object which is deemed treasure. Objects substantially made from gold or silver but are less than 300 years old, that have been deliberately hidden with the intention of recovery and whose owners or heirs are unknown.
Not doubting you, but condition looks WAY too good for being in the dirt. Even some hoard coins don’t look that nice.
Were you ever in the military and got moved (TDY?) suddenly but had some of the local currency that never got exchanged? This happened in 248 just like it did yesterday.
I only have a drawer full of the stuff I understood that soldiers moved around even back then. But from Antioch to the UK seemed a bit far. I thought soldiers tended to stay around their general "AOR"s.
When war was winding down in the East and the Germans were acting up, there was a lot of walking to be done.
It was located behind a country store. And, yes, I showed the landowner and he had no problems with me digging things up. No, it's not a protected site.
Well, that's how they looked after the baby oil was washed away. There was NO scrubbing involved. I was just lucky. I did find other coins but I gave them to the landowner. He was VERY happy.
You can check https://www.vcoins.com, https://www.ma-shops.com/ or https://www.forumancientcoins.com/ (just to name a few) and search by the key words "Phillip", "antoninianus" and "tetradrachm" to get an idea. But considering the current situation, who knows...