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Description: | CURATOR'S REPORTDescription of findRoman coin; struck gold aureus of Carausius (286-293). Found in association with DENO-64DAE1. Gold Aureus (20mm; 4.65g; Die Axis 12) LondonObverse: Helmeted and cuirassed bust of emperor facing left, looking glum. VIRTVS CAR/AVSI Rev. Draped figure of Pax facing left, holding branch in front of her and sceptre behind. PAX AVG No mint markThe coins Both the coins were struck in the reign of Carausius (AD 286-93), one at the mint of London, the other the mint of Rouen.Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare, these two specimens increasing the corpus of Huvelin from 23 to 25 - 15 for London and 10 for Rouen. (4 of the coins in Huvelin's corpus were struck by Carausius in the name of Maximian (Huvelin nos. 20-3)) This coin is unpublished. It is the third London aureus of Carausius to bear a helmeted bust. The earliest known example, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, has the obverse legend VIRTVS CA-RAVSI and shows Carausius helmeted to the left, but holding a shield and spear (Huvelin no. 10). The Midlands coin is much closer to the second example which was acquired by B. A. Seaby in 1978, and was possibly found near Lille in France (Seaby Coin and Medal Bulletin No. 713, February 1978, pp. 36-7). This coin has an identical obverse legend (VIRTVS CAR-AVSI) and helmeted bust is also left facing, but is draped and cuirassed (Huvelin no. 11). Furthermore, there is only has a linear design on the helmet, there being no animal. In style the two pieces are similar, possibly both sunk by the same die engraver, but the Midlands example has a better modelled bust. Although Pax appears on the reverses of a number of Carausian gold coins (RIC V, nos. 3-5; Huvelin nos. 12-15), this is the first example with the legend PAX AVG and no mintmark or other exergue inscription. Given the common occurrence of this Pax type on bronze coins of Carausius, it might not be an unexpected type.From the same find? Both coins were found at the same spot. It is likely that they were deposited together as gold coins in ancient and medieval times were extremely valuable items and would be highly unlikely to have been dropped accidentally. (At this time a Roman soldier might expect to be paid an annual salary of 12 gold coins).Metal content? Although there were some quite debased gold coins struck in the 3rd century AD, these pieces appear to be of good quality gold, probably over 90% pure at least. More is known about Carausius' silver coinage which was of a high fineness.Conclusion On the balance of probabilities, therefore, I conclude that these coins belong together as a hoard and constitute a prima facie case of treasure by being precious metal coins of an antiquity greater than 300 years and are of one find of more than two pieces.Sam Moorhead Dept. of Portable Antiquities and Treasure British Museum 29 January 2008
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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