A seemingly unremarkable discovery at Pompeii led to some intriguing findings when two bodies were unearthed: one belonging to a 35-40-year-old woman and the other to a 20-year-old man. Interestingly, a small collection of coins and jewelry, including gold and pearl earrings, was found with the female body (pictured on the left). All these items, of course, predate the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/ne...-remains-two-more-victims-pompeii-1234714153/ https://pompeiisites.org/wp-content/uploads/19_E-Journal_Scavando-nella-notte-oscura-di-Pompei_Il-rinvenimento-di-due-vittime-nell’ambiente-33_Insula-10_Regio-IX-1.pdf Note: It's interesting that so many Republican coins (listed in chart as monete romane repubblicane) were potentially circulating in the Empire at this later date.
What an interesting find! Six aureii represent about six months' wages for a skilled worker, so this cache was likely that person's savings. Among these aureii, the butting bull aureus of Titus as Caesar immediately caught my attention, as I own one of the same type. Based on my research, this coin has only two reverse types: one with a slanted bar over the IIII (like mine), and the other with a straight line, another notable difference is the bull's balls missing on one, but not the other. Although, both types are referenced under the same RIC 780 and Calicó 731. Some of those types below: 1. From my collection: 2. (Reverse die match to mine) A coin from the Boscoreale Hoard sold by H.D. Rauch Auction 102, Lot 55. 7-10 Nov 2016. 3. The coin from the excavation: it seems to be a die match (straight-line over IIII), even down to the die cracks above the bull's hump to the coin below. 4. (Reverse die match to the coin above) A coin from The New York Sale, Auction 48, Lot 217 (Jan, 2020).
This purse is very interesting. This unfortunate woman carried of her money what she could take in a hurry, probably a purse. The gold is mostly recent. But the silver denarii are almost all republican, 6 of them dating back from the late 3rd or early 2nd c. BC ! These silver coins, some being c. 250 years old and of course very worn, were still circulating in Italy... For us it would be like if we had in our wallets coins of Louis XV or George III and we could spend them at the supermarket. Nero reduced the weight of the denarius, but older denarii were so worn that they probably matched the weight of new coins. In fact, weight and purity of silver coinage did not matter. In Arabia and Judaea, for example, Roman denarii and Arabia-drachms were considered equivalent, though Arabia-drachms contained much less silver than Roman denarii. The Jewish rebels of the second revolt used to overstrike the two kinds of coins to mint their own drachms.
Almost certainly in fact - since they would not have circulated if better. Trajan finally finished them off - seeing the examples in the OP you can understand why. Finds like this are very informative, unfortunately quite rare.
