Identifying coins from Pompeii encrusted with volcanic ash

X-rays of coins from Pompeii. You can read the scientific paper here.

 

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Awesome. Thanks for sharing

 

Wow I wish I had one of those. Is there anywhere we can buy a coin found in pompeii?

 

The ones explicitly provenanced to Pompeii are in museums. The ones that are *probably* from Pompeii are aurii with vibrant toning (from the Boscoreale hoard).

I’ve settled for artifacts for the time being instead of a coin.

 

@TypeCoin971793 Thanks for info. So is there anywhere I can get an example of Boscoreale hoard coin for sale?

 

I believe @AncientJoe has some AMAZING coins from this area. Go to his profile and click on his signature link. Prepare to be blown away.

 

Wait around, watch auctions, and have $3000-20000 ready to spend.

I believe there were only 125 in the hoard.

 

@Nathan401 WOWWWW I am truly impressed I can say his coins are the best I have seen yet on here they are in the level of NYC yearly coin sale or even better. Each of his gold roman worth at least 10K for sure. It is out of reach for me But i was more looking for a cheaper hoard coin from pompeii like Boscoreale hoard as mentioned above.

 

The pompeii coin that expensive? I am not talking about gold just a normal bronze or silver denarii will do for me . even those are 3K plus??

 

Good luck proving any coins outside of museums are from Pompeii. Records just were not kept back then (the hoard was found in 1895). Since then, all artifacts (including coins) found in Pompeii are kept in museums.

The toning on the aurii suggests high temperatures in high-sulfur environements (aka buried in volcanic ash), so they are deemed likely to have been excavated in Pompeii.

 

The Boscoreale hoard was 125 aurii. Not Cheap stuff.

 

Thanks!

They didn't keep great records during the excavation and many coins were melted down(!) but it is estimated that roughly 1,000 were found in the Boscoreale hoard. Some have reached prices > $500K although the "host coin" is a large reason for the price level. Boscoreale aurei come up fairly regularly, especially for Nero whose coins represented 400+ of the overall hoard.

There was a census published in 1909 - I've posted a couple pictures here - and generally the confidence of it being an actual Boscoreale coin can be helped by the pedigree, in addition to the depth of toning. I have two Boscoreale aurei from the Biaggi collection and my others are from collections in the interim.

This Domitian is a recent purchase and arguably my favorite Boscoreale aureus. It has the Biaggi pedigree, strong toning, a historical depiction (Romulus & Remus), and is in fine condition.


This Vespasian is also ex-Biaggi and a number of other sales. It's more of a "Good VF" than an EF but upgrading it would be a challenge.


Nero:


Tiberius:


Here are a couple pages from the 1909 article:

 

Wow - I didn’t know you had more than one @AncientJoe... those are all incredible.

 

I would expect there are coins around. As recently as the 1980s, scholars studying at Pompeii could bring home trinkets from the digs.

 

I regularly keep an eye on @AncientJoe's site. Vespasian still makes me want to weep.

 

Some great coins there. It sure would be nice to get one with a Pompeii provenance.

 

This surely could be the showcase coin of any collection simply for its history: the iconic she-wolf reverse, and a survivor of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, having been struck under Vespasion sometime in 77 - 78 AD.

Luckily, I already had a Domitian aureus in my collection or I might unwisely have gotten engaged in a bidding war for this one!

 

There are over 9000 academic reports on various coin hoards found around the world. You can get on the academia.edu site and keep limiting your searches until you have exactly the data that you want. Several recent reports have been about hoards of contemporary counterfeits where none of the coins found were genuine. In other cases heavily worn originals were being melted down to plate the fakes. Enjoy.

 

arashpour, by browsing around in Vesuvian volcanic ash, you could prove lucky. If not, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you weren't just resting on your laurels !!!

 

I see so many coins come to CNG VCoins etc and some are gold roman coins I am sure they should have come from a hoard I dont think someone regularly finds single coins and send to these auctions so I assume there should be somehow hoards being found monthly but no report found on these hoards so where these coins come from on the market if not coming from any published hoards? This has always been a question for me