We have had several posts before about the famous Tomares, Spain coin hoard of 2016. (See below.) The find involved 19 amphorae filled with more than 50,000 coins dating from AD 294-311. Here are some recent results of numismatic studies of the coin hoard: “A Civil Guard patrol was the first to arrive at El Zaudín Park in Tomares, in the southern Spanish province of Seville. It was April 27, 2016 and the law enforcement agency had just been notified that heavy machinery doing construction work in the area had accidentally come across 19 large ceramic containers filled with what appeared to be tens of thousands of Roman coins. Now, six years later, a group of archaeologists and coin experts from the University of Seville have released a report, "Currency and metal in Late Antiquity: the Treasure of Tomares or Zaudín" that explores those findings. After analyzing 5,899 pieces, the researchers concluded that there were approximately 53,000 coins kept in the 19 amphorae, which were buried in a hidden storage area within a now-defunct Roman villa, and that they were all minted between the years 294 and 311 AD. The 5,899 pieces that were analyzed were minted under the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Constantine, Severus, Maximinus, Licinius and Maxentius. They came from the mints of Rome, Carthage, Aquileia, Treveris, Ticinum, Lugdunum, Londinium, Siscia and Ostia. A smaller number of coins came from Alexandria, Cyzicus, Thessaloniki, Heraklea, Nicomedia and Antiochi. The emperor whose name appears on the highest number of coins is Diocletian, and the mint, Carthage.” https://english.elpais.com/culture/...stash-of-roman-coins-ever-found-in-spain.html https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coin-hoard-found-in-spain.278060/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/19-jugs-of-roman-coins-found.301766/#post-2832261
After 6 years they have concluded that there are too many to study, and 9 amphora have still to be opened. Some have voiced their opinions on continuing the research due to the date ranges and the possibility of discovering important varieties regarding Constantine I
Time to clean those coins and start attributing them. Keep the best two or three of each RIC number or whatever catalogue and sell the rest. Maybe keep the busted amphora and the dogs of the hoard for a display. Museums too often plead poverty and continually request funds while having thousands or millions of dollars of inventory stashed away with no possible hope of the public enjoying them. They need to pick a FOCUS and stick to it. Everything else they need to sell.
Carthage seems to be an odd mint to be dominant in that hoard. Maybe that’s just a proximity issue? But is Carthage any closer to the find site than, say, Lyons or Arles? The video says they were struck and then stored, perhaps to pay civil servants. I was expecting all the coins, then, to come from a single mint. But it looks like they were struck all over the place. Not quite sure how to reconcile that fact with what the video describes.
I doubt there's any MS70's in those amphoras, still I'd love to see them in person, even in a museum! Those coins are from AD 294-311, shows you how young the US Mint truly is!
When I see huge hoards of low denomination coins like this, I always wonder, "Why didn't they consolidate into aurei?". This seems like the modern equivalent of stacking up a pallet load of $1 bills when you could instead just have a wallet full of $100s. Maybe denomination exchange wasn't so simple back then?
That’s a good question. If this was some kind of official hoard for payroll purposes, maybe they needed disbursements in smaller denominations. Might be tough to pay civil servants in gold.
Ya, I can imagine applications where it would make sense to have huge amounts of smaller denominations. However, it seems like filling up and burying the coins in jars wouldn't make sense in those situations. Might be wrong though.
Hi @Cherd, In Ptolemaic Egypt there was a fee added whenever one wanted to convert copper coins to silver (and silver to gold). This was called an 'agio'. So in effect, you loose a bit a buying power if you 'traded up' to the more compact denominations. Maybe the same was true in this case. - Broucheion
