1726 George 1st milled gold full guinea

2ndC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

This is a denarius of Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD.  The title in the obverse legend - L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP III - dates the piece to 194 AD.  The reverse type - PACI AVGVSTI - shows Pax seated left holding an olive-branch and a cornucopaie.
References: RIC IV 37, RSC 359.

Severus was the less-famous father of the infamous emperor Caracalla.  Severus died while on campaign in Britain, where he'd been strengthening defenses and rebuilding Hadrian's wall since 208, in York, on February 4, 211.

His death left sons Caracalla and Geta to share the throne as co-emperors, but Caracalla's plans didn't include giving power or advantage to his younger brother on whom he had wasted no love.  On the premise of a meeting of reconciliation with Geta held at a family villa soon thereafter, he had arranged for his bodyguard to attack and fatally stab Geta, who subsequently died in their mother's arms.  Nice folks.

Mark

Mid 4thC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

This appears to be a CONSTANTINOPOLIS city commemorative.  As the move of Constantine's seat of government to Constantinople was about to be implemented and become official in 330 AD, a very large emission of city commemoratives for both Rome and the new Capital was issued at the same time as the very common and familiar pieces with a portrait of a Constantinian family member and GLORIA EXERVITVS soldiers and standard(s) reverse.  The VRBS ROMA commemoratives showed a similar armored bust of the personification of the city of Rome and had the shewolf suckling the twins Romulus & Remus on its anepigraphic reverse.
This piece features the armored bust of Constantinople on the obvverse and Victory in the prow of a galley, holding a spear and resting on a shield on its anepigraphic reverse.
I can't tell what the mint was - the features on the reverse are too indistinct. 
These were struck at all mints in the Imperial minting system between 330-337.  The Constantinopolis and Roma obverses were subsequently resurrected after Constantine's death and coupled with either a GLORIA EXERCITUS soldiers and standard, or a Vota-type reverse in some of the mint cities which hesitated to "declare" for one or another of the 3 sons of Constantine - Constantine Jr, Constans and Constantius II - who did not settle easily into the divided responsibility and shared power their father had planned for them and soon sparked a significant period of civil unrest while they sorted things out.  Constantine II did Constans and Constantius II the favor of dying very soon, in 340 - Constans managed to survive until 350 when his death left Constantius in sole rulership of the Empire.

Mark

2ndC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

The "sestertius" sized piece offers us less by way of positive markers, but the shape of the head (and the "corn-row" at the top of it) seems most like Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus.  I can't figure what's happening on the reverse, but the chance that the orientation is based on whatever it is that looks like the letter "Y" is very unlikely.  I'll try rotating the image a bit and see if it rings any bells.

1894 Birmingham silver ring - anchor mark , pure silver , maker H.B

4thC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

Just a W.A.G. (as we academic types say...) this might be a SALVS REIPVBLICAE reverse from the later Valentinian Dynasty era. (Valentinian II, Theodosius I, Arcadius - 383-393 AD) I can't tell which of the 4 possible emperors it might be, however.
The reverse type shows Victory walking left, dragging a captive and carrying a trophy over her shoulder.

At least this seems to be the most likely reverse type - this makes this one of the latest Roman coins I can recall you finding.

Mark

1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross half penny

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev **ON LVND - London mint

BC Roman silver coin - sent for ID

Surprisingly, there is just enough left visble in just the correct places to allow me to place this as an issue of L. Julius Bursio, 85 BC. Sear says:
"Draped bust of young male deity right, combining attributes of Apollo (laurel-wreath), Mercury (winged head), and Neptune (trident over shoulder); control mark to left.  Reverse, Victory in quadriga right, sometimes with control-mark/s in field; L IVLI BVRSIO in exergue. Crawford RRC 352/1; Sydenham CRR 728; RSC Julia 6; SR 268. 

Mark

Silver washed Roman coin sent for ID

Wow - this is sort of a puzzle.  I'll get back to you with with some sort of explanation after I do a little more research.  As you can see, the clearest bits of legend on the coin are the letters "NO..."  in the reverse legend, which seems to end "...S AV[G]"

There are precious few Roman coin legends which begin with the letter "N" - NOBILITAS AVG - would be my first guess, but in a really brief search of lists of legends on the denarii of the usual suspects, I can't find a single usage of it - or any other legends beginning "NO...".  I'm presuming this is approximately denarius/antoninianus size, right?  "Æ3" generally speaking - somewhere between maybe 15 & 20 mm, right?

Too bad it can't be cooked, but perhaps it could either be soaked - or in a worst-case scenario, perhaps some very careful electrolysis (low current for brief periods of time, watched very closely) could clean it up without killing it.  The first impression I have from the seemingly curly-haired portrait is Marcus Aurelius, Verus or Commodus.  If it's Æ or low-grade billon, then it would have to be a contemporary copy since the Antonine dynasty all used reasonably good-quality silver.  Æ, billon or silver-wash denarii in good style and reasonably believable workmanship are often found in the Balkans - they're erroneously referred to as "Limes denarii".  We don't know exactly how they fit into the monetary scheme, but so many have been found in recent years that what used to be a rare curiosity is now a common curiosity with no explanation, except that it's obvious there were many of them in circulation - That incorrect name has been used so long that I'm afraid it's going to stick no matter how inaccurate a term it might be.

I'll get back to you when/if I get a better idea of what this is.

Mark

I have to stick with a higher probability of this being Septimius Severus on an Eastern European Æ denarius with a NOBILITAS reverse than anything else I can propose - unless you can make a case for it being silver under the crud - in which case it might well be an official denarius of the same type.  You say "silvered", so I have to believe it's one of the aforementioned copies, the exact usage and place of which within the monetary system is not clearly understood - although they obviously passed current at some level.

There is a small possibility of it being another of the Severans, possibly Geta Augustus, but that's pretty unlikely.

Mark

1422-61Henry VI hammered silver halfpenny - 1st reign

Annulet Issue - Annulets by neck and reverse with annulets in VIL and CAL qtrs

Obv +hENRIC REX ANGL

Rev VIL/LA/CAL/IS - Calais mint

1279 Edward 1st hammered silver penny - Class 10cf

Miss spelling type missing E

Obv DRWARD ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Royal Arch Masons Jewel Deo Regi Fratribus Honor Fidelitas Benevolentia

Huge Victorian silver badge - one side is Latin and other reads Beauty, Wisdom, Truth, Concord, Strength

9.0g, 47mm H - Maker Spencer of London

Deo regi fratribus honor fidelitas benevolentia" -
God, King, Brother, Fidelity, Benevolence

"Every Royal Arch Mason is entitled to wear the Jewel of the Degree".

3rdC Roman coin sent for ID

22.22mm, 3.55g

Remember the "hoard" you had last year which included a dozen or so pieces from the short-lived Magnentius and his brother Decentius? - This is another of those - it even seems to have nearly identical plow-soil damage, edge chipping and surface and degradation as those displayed.  It's probably Magnentius since his coins are somewhat less scarce than those of his shorter-lived brother - both were portrayed with similarly dopey facial expressions and equally dopey haircuts.  The reverse shows 2 Victories holding a shield inscribed VOT /  V / MVLT / X between them - the reverse legend should be VICTORIAE DD NN AVG ET CAE or very close thereto.

Magnentius was Augustus in parts of the west from 350 to 353 at which time he and his brother, whom he'd made Caesar in 351, were defeated by Constantius II and committed suicide rather than being captured, imprisoned and eventually dishonorably executed by Constantius.  

Mark

2ndC Roman silver coin sent for ID

I'm pretty sure this began life as a denarius of Domitian, 81-96 AD. Depending how complete the roman numeral at 5:30 might be (is it VI? or VII?) it could have been minted any time from 86-88 AD.  More than that, there simply is not enough detail left to say with any authority.

Mark

1464-70 Edward IV hammered silver half penny - Light coinage - I.m Crown, satires by neck

Obv EDWARD DI GRA REX

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON

Saxon gold casting waste 59.49 g, 60.61mm wide

Huge Roman bronze sent for ID

29.22mm ,13.69g

Without at least a bit of revelatory legend on the obverse (the "IMP..." at 8:00 isn't much help - nearly all the emperors from the 1st through the 3rd century began their official titles with "IMP") all I have to go on is the shape of the head and the general overall "fabric" of the piece.  Being somewhat square, it belongs to the period in which "cob" style flan production had replaced the sphere-cast & hammer-flattened Æ blanks flans of earlier years. The earlier type of flan manufacture had produced a more nearly round product but was more labor-intensive and slower.  Generally - although it is seen on-and-off for quite a while - the latter part of the 2nd and most of the 3rd century saw this form of blank production for the large Æ in which a round bar of coin metal approximately the desired diameter of the finished coins was cast, then individual blanks were chopped off the end with 3 or 4 heavy hammer and chisel strokes, on an anvil, rotating the bar 90º at a time between strikes.  This tended to make squarish flans - like the one we see here.  The vague standing deity or personification on the reverse doesn't show any attributes that might allow me to say who was intended - and the emperors of this period tended to use all the possible deities and personifications over time, so even if we knew who was on the reverse, it probably wouldn't be of any help identifing which emperor struck it.

So, judging by the squarish flan and the shape of the head, I'd say this is most likely to be Severus Alexander, 222-235 AD.  Here is a relatively unusual example struck on a large, "medallic" flan which doesn't show the results of cob manufacture nearly as clearly as some:
http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album97/ML_13_Sev_Alex_Equitas_sest 
like this one, for example: 
http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album97/ML_14_Sev_Alex_Spes_sest 
this shape for large Æ coins is far more commonly representative of the era with uneven edges often causing significant parts of the legends to fall off-flan.

Mark

1199 John hammered silver penny - Class 5c

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev ILGIER ON LVND - Moneyer Ilger of London mint

17thC silver seal matrix - rev initial IC , reported as treasure to museum

18thC decorated clog fastener

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny

Obv EDWAR R ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny

Obv EDWARDVS REX ANG

Rev CIVIT/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross penny - Class 5b

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev NIC/OLE/ONC/ANT/ Monyer Nicole of Canterbury mint

1199 King John hammered silver short cross half penny - Class 5b

Reb + Willel ** , Moneyer Willelm

Huge C 9thC Viking 'Ladder of life' strapend - theses are know for being unusually large

70.23mm L x 28.15mm W, 43.24g

1199 John hammered silver penny - Class 5b2

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev ILGEIR ON LVNDE - Moneyer Ilger of London mint

1042 Saxon Edward the Confessor hammered silver penny- expanding cross type 0.72g, 18.48mm

Sent off to the Fitzwilliam museum for recording and ID confirmation

Many thanks for this new find, which I have recorded as EMC 2012.0095.

This is a coin of the London moneyer Spracelinc, with the first letter and part of the second letter of the moneyer's name visible.

Best wishes,

Martin

Monster sized Roman bronze sent for ID

32.23mm dia , 22.59g, 4.25 mm thick

Although the detail you speak of doesn't really come through too well in the photo, I'm pretty certain this is Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) and the reverse appears to be Securitas - that's just about the only personification ever shown slouching at her ease, leaning against a short pillar like this.

I believe the reverse type and legend is SECVRITAS PVBLICA - S - C. Securitas standing left holding long, transverse scepter, resting left elbow on column.  This would date to 142 AD if I have the type right. Probably RIC III 641 (or similar)

Mark

The seal legend reads 'Seal of Piro'

1260 AD Non Heraldic personal seal of freeholders of Charwelton Nothhamptonshire. 4 have been found attached to pasture rights. The design is typical of mid 13thC non heraldic seals, a fleur -de- lis, a flower, the lamb of god and each names it's owner on the legend

Roman Eagles head bronze votive offering

1351-61 Edward III hammered silver penny- Pre treaty - annulets in obv quadrants. Double annulet stops after TAS

Obv EDWARDVS REX ANGLI

Durham mint

1247 Henry III hammered silver voided long cross 1/4 penny

Moneyer David of London

'

As dug

'Cooked

Roman silver coin - straight into 'cooker ' to remove crust

Sent for ID

In the wake of Nero's suicide, there was a period of civil war in which several serious contenders to the purple fought it out.  The first to take control in the power vacuum was Galba.  He might have done well if not overthrown by Otho - the fellow on this coin (and a former associate of Nero's - until Nero forced him to divorce his wife and give her to Nero who subsequently kicked her to death). Otho had hoped to be adopted as heir and successor by the much older Galba. When it became obvious this wasn't going to happen, Otho seized the throne on Jan 15, 69 and managed to hold on until the forces of Vitellius, defeating him soundly in a battle, made him decide to follow his former friend Nero in retiring from the Principiate by suicide, April 17, 69.

In short (no pun intended) Otho reigned more briefly than any emperor before the late 3rd century.  He never got around to ordering Imperial Æ small change to be struck with his portrait, concentrating his efforts on the gold and silver, consequently there is no Imperial Roman Æ for Otho. In Æ, only a very few Provincial issues exist for him. This is the basis of one of the classic frauds, the "Sestertius of Otho" produced for centuries to satisfy the collectors who wound up with an empty place in their sestertius tray http://www.stoa.org/gallery/Civil-War/22_Otho_sestertius  Where a demand exists, someone will nearly aways endeavor to fill it.  His gold and silver are both quite scarce, too. 

This denarius with the SECVRITAS P R reverse is the most common type for Otho, but this only means it's slightly less scarce than the other very scarce denarii.

Mark

15th/16thC religious pendant

IHS: dating from the 8th c., this is an abbreviation for "IHESUS," the way Christ's Name was spelled in the Middle Ages (despite popular belief, the monogram stands neither for "Iesus Hominum Salvator" --"Jesus Saviour of Men" -- nor for "In His Service.") Popularized by St. Bernardine of Siena, the monogram was later used by St. Ignatius of Loyola as a symbol for the Jesuit Order.

The IHS monogram is an abbreviation or shortening of Jesus' name in Greek to the first three letters. Thus ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, ιησυς (iēsus, "Jesus"), is shortened to ΙΗΣ (iota-eta-sigma), sometimes transliterated into Latin or English characters as IHS or ΙΗC.

The symbol is said to appear rarely in the catacombs, only in the catacomb of Priscilla and the atrium of the Capella Gr�ca (Greek Chapel).1 It was popularized in the fifteenth century, however, by Franciscan disciple Bernadine of Sienna as a symbol of peace. In 1541 St. Ignatius Loyola adopted the symbol with three nails below and surrounded by the sun as the seal of the Jesuit order.

Contrary to some authors, the monogram originally stood for neither for Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus Savior of Men") nor for "In His Service." Some attribute its origin to Constantine's vision, where he saw a cross with the inscription "In hoc signo vinces" ("in this sign you shall conquer,"2 which is abbreviated, according to them, as IHS. However, this seems to require a stretch, as do claims that it is really a pagan symbol. The simplest explanation, as an abbreviation of Jesus' name, is best.

Mid 19thC 24th Regiment of foot button

The South Wales Borderers

4thC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

17.2mm, 1.91g

The first is a half-Majorina of Constantius II - it has the same FEL TEMP REPARATIO reverse as the far more common "fallen horseman" and "Emperor in galley" reverse types, but this shows a radiate phoenix standing on a globe.  These were only struck for a relatively short time beginning in 348 (348 to 350, or thereabouts) because given the rapidly shrinking module of the Majorina (some call this denomination a Centenionalis, BTW, in case there's any confusion) as well as the inflation which caused it, they quickly ceased to make any sense.  The exergual mitmark seems to be off-flan, so I can't say where it was minted, except that those on which the phoenix stands on a globe (as opposed to a rocky mound) were generally from the Western mints.

2ndC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

32.53mm, 18.34g

Trajan 96-117 AD.  - I'm reasonably sure it is Trajan, but it's pretty tough to be certain in this case.

Mark

2ndC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

17.93, 32.56

Hadrian - 117-138 AD.   Unfortunately there isn't enough detail remaining to determine what reverse types of either of these may have been - which might allow us to date them more closely.

Mark

1611 Swedish hammered silver 1 ore coin

OBVERSE: Sheaf separating letters C.R. in circle and date 1611, legend: REGIS*SVECIA*
REVERSE: Lion rampant, legend: MONETA*NOVA* 1ör
COIN DIAMETER: 21mm
COIN WEIGHT: 1.62 gram
SILVER CONTENT: Ag 250/1000 (.250)
MINT: Stockholm

4thC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

The city commemoratives - in honor of both Constantinople and Rome - are contemporaneous with the ubiquitous GLORIA EXERCITVS, 2 soldiers flanking 1 or 2 standards issues.  Each has an allegorical representation of the city - as a relatively similar-looking helmeted and armored woman - facing left on the obverse - one has the legend, CONSTANTINOPOLIS, the other, VRBS ROMA.   The Constantinople type had an anepigraphic reverse showing Victory, carrying spear and shield, in the prow of a galley.  The Rome version has the anepigraphic Shewolf & Twins reverse.  These two types were introduced in 330 AD to announce/commemorate Constantine the Great's re-founding of the city of Byzantium as Constantiople, his new Imperial capital. Both types were struck until his death in 337, and the obverses were resurrected with single-standard Gloria Ex reverses at a number of eastern mints in the late 330's and early 340's.

Mark

1327 Edward III hammered silver groat

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Early medieval gold ring fragment - reported as treasure to museum

20.79mm x 1.14g