Ancients: Inconvenient Coin: Dating the Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum

I have great respect for the contributions that numismatists have made to the understanding of Ancient history. Although I'm currently focusing on early 1700's England / Britain, this interesting post came to my attention.

http://garethharney.wordpress.com/2...g-the-destruction-of-pompeii-and-herculaneum/

Any thoughts about the article?

(I apologize if this has been previously posted. Special thanks to UNRV for bringing this article to my attention.)


guy

 

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There was an interesting discussion about this coin on Forvm awhile ago.

I am taking this from the Forvm discussion. There is an article by Richard Abdy from the British Museum called The Last Coin in Pompeii that came out in the 2013 Numismatic Chronicle. The coin is a denarius of Titus with Capricorn on Globe reverse. The coin is in poor condition and was originally attributed as TR P VIIII IMP XV COS VII PP which would have placed it after the traditional date of the eruption. The article states that under new examination it is actually TR P VIII IMP XIIII COS VII which dates to before the eruption.

I haven't read the article myself yet and was never able to find a copy of the article online It is a really interesting topic though.

 

Well, read David Atherton's reply...

"Richard Abdy of the British Museum examined the coin in question last year when it was part of the BM’s Pompeii exhibit. In his article ‘The Last Coin in Pompeii’ in the 2013 Numismatic Chronicle he concluded the reverse legend actually reads TR P VIIII IMP XIIII COS VII, dating it to July/August 79 AD. Oh well."

We need to see a picture of the coin. It's hard to imagine any confusion between the reading of IMP XV and IMP XVIIII on a newly-struck, uncirculated coin. A drawing won't do. We need to see the coin, not somebody else's interpretation of it. Was a picture of it published in NC?

 

Nice article, think I read it in the past but still, very interesting.

Pompeii exhibit is here in l.a. but still havent gone. I plan to in Oct. or Nov.

I really wanna see it.

https://www.californiasciencecenter.org/Exhibits/SpecialExhibits/pompeii/pompeii.php