Need someone to point me in the right direction with my Ancient hunt.

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Roman coins of the era A.D. 379-405 (the latter days of the House of Valentinian) are quite common - at least the Æ's are. Emperors, etc, represented on Roman coins during that period would be:
Gratian (367-383 - very common)
Valentinian II (375-392, common)
Theodosius I (379-395, very common)
Aelia Flacilla (wife of Theodosius I, 379-386 - scarce)
Magnus Maximus (383-388 - scarce to common. He actually has some connection with the British Isles and is mentioned in a roundabout way by Rudyard Kipling in "Puck of Pook's Hill")
Flavius Victor (son of Mag. Max - 387/8 - scarce to rare)
Eugenius (392-394, scarce to rare)
Arcadius (383-408, very common)
Eudoxia (wife of Arcadius, d. 404, scarce to common)
Honorius (393-423, very common).
Coins of any of these Roman Imperials might have (and almost certainly did) cross the sea to Ireland to be used in trade - along with the coins of every other Roman Imperial personage up until that time - even Roman Republican coins, though not common, have been found in Ireland.
Roman coins and local imitations thereof had a very wide area of circulation, well into India/Sri Lanka/S.E. Asia and some have even been said to be found in China. It's hard to imagine the Irish being so backwards as not to use coins at all during the Roman period and thereafter. Perhaps they saw little use in the hinterlands, but in the population centers they almost certainly must have been in use, at least among the merchant class.

 

This gives me a lot of great options.

 

A couple years ago there were a few late Roman bronzes excavated in Japan:

http://theconversation.com/how-did-...ns-end-up-in-a-medieval-japanese-castle-66417

 

Too bad there isn't a "Where's Arcadius" website.

 

Some Roman gold coins were found at Newgrange. These must be a late edition, Newgrange is older than the pyramids of Egypt. http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/04/roman-coins-from-newgrange/

“Ring money” might have been in use in Ireland. Unfortunately there is no way to distinguish between Irish ring money and other kinds of ring money. http://www.irishcoinage.com/EARLY.HTM

Wikipedia has a list of Irish hoards including Roman and Viking coins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hoards_in_Ireland#Roman_hoards

 

Thank you Ed. I previously read the Ring Money one but hadn't seen the other two.
All of you have given me some great options. Although the gold stuff is probably out.

 

Too bad it’s burnt.