Mid 3thC Barbarous radiate Roman sent for ID

Exactly as you describe it, except that these date to the mid-3rd and not the 4th century.  This is typical of the locally-produced emergency coinages which popped up in Britain and Northern Gaul during the end of the Gallic Empire and the period of chaos which followed before Aurelian stitched the Empire back together. It held for another 200 years, although it came within a whisker of falling completely in the 260's-270's.  The prototype here was probably an antoninianus of Tetricus II since this does not seem to be a bearded portrait.

Mark 

1485 -1509 Henry VIII hammered silver groat

Obv *** DI GRA

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

Stunning medieval heraldic pendant - two silvered eagle heads facing outwards on red enamel - griffin in blue square enamelled back ground

Researching the titled family

1189-1190 Richard 1st hammered silver voided short cross hammered silver penny Class 2 ('cooking' to remove horn silver crust )

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev VLARD ON CANT - Moneyer Vlard of Canterbury mint

1180 Henry 1st hammered silver half penny

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev **V+ WILL **

Moneyer Willelm of London mint

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - Cross 3

Obv EDWAR ANGL DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON

Medeival pin head

C1000 BC Bronze Age sword blade fragment

Staggeringly rare find - c8thC Saxon solid silver hooked fastener used on their leg bindings

Reported as treasure to museum

Brilliant find and our first ever Rhuddlan (Welsh) mint found - Cross is Cross pattee, a cross with pellet ends

1180 Henry II hammered silver short cross penny - Group 1 coin

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev + TOMAS ON RVLA - Tomas of Rhuddlan mint (wales)

Primary Saxon silver sceat - 600-775 AD sent to Fitzswilliam museum for recording and ID

Obv Pointed nose face, bust facing right

Many thanks for this new coin, which I have recorded as EMC 2012.0101.
This is of course a Series D (Type 2c) Continental sceat of c.700-715.

Best wishes,

Martin

4thC Roman bronze coin sent for ID

If you will recall the paragraph I wrote recently on the VRBS ROMA / Shewolf type, this is one of the CONSTANTINOPOLIS / Victory-on-prow companion types - the two city commemoratives of 330-335 for both Constantine's new capitol at Constantinople and the Eternal City (so those Romans wouldn't feel too slighted by the move).

Mark

Debased silver Roman coin sent for ID - soaking to clean it more as 'cooking' could damage it

20.75mm

This piece presents a couple of problems.  Generally speaking, it appears to be either an official or reasonably well-done unofficial piece for Tetricus I, whose portrait appears to be on the obverse - generally speaking, this is none too unusual, as you're probably aware.  Unofficial (and official) Tetricus radiates are found all over Britain all the time.

1st problem - the legend, although at first glance it seems to be "literate", it doesn't line up with any known legend on a radiate of this period - and I'm talking about everyone including the issuers of post-reform radiates after Diocletian's reforms - ie: the previous 15 and the next 30 years, at minimum, from Tetricus' time.  OK, there were plenty of "imaginative" legends placed on unoffically produced coins, up to and including the lettering becoming a merely decorative border of "I's" and "O's", etc.  But this is tantalizingly close to looking like it should be a legit legend.

2nd problem - the reverse - and as you can tell, there isn't a lot to go on - seems to be of the CONSECRATIO / lighted altar enclosure with panelled front.  These are exceedingly common for Claudius II, Gothicus, but the legend on the obverse is nothing like any legend ever seen on a Gothicus posthumous piece.  There were no posthumous issues for Tetricus - he was rewarded for giving up the Gallic Empire to Aurelian without a fight, retired into private life and died in bed in a villa in Italy an unknown length of time afterwards as he disappears from the historical record at that point.

I'm stuck with saying that it's a contemporary copy of the so-called "barbarous radiate" type, emulating a prototype - a very common posthumous issue of Claudius II (with a portrait that favors Tetricus I) - except that instead of copying the simple DIVO CLAVDIO or any of Tetricus' legends, the diecutter went wild and made up a 25 or 30 character obverse legend - typically unofficial diecutters shortened and simplified legends - they didn't make them longer and more involved, particularly when making them look as though they were a literate and legitimate legend.

For those reasons, this is one of the most unusual radiates of this period I have ever seen.

Mark

1300 Edward 1st hammered silver farthing- type 28

Obv EDWARDVS REX

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

EYC

20th Regiment of foot ??

Stunning Primary Saxon silver sceat - 600-775 AD sent to Fitzswilliam museum for recording and ID

1.13mm, 12.55mm

This coin (EMC 2012.0103) is a good example of the MONITASCORVM group, which is certainly very interesting.

Some coins with a similar portrait read MONITASCORVM, which probably means 'money of the saints' (MONITA S[AN]C[T]ORVM), and there are other coins that clearly state that they are from London: DE LVNODNIA, some of which (as here) have SCORVM on the reverse under the 'porcupine'. The most likely (but still speculative) explanation of these inscriptions is that this is a coinage of the bishops of London.

Best wishes,

Martin

Crusty Roman silver sent for ID

I'll have to meditate on this one a bit.  It ultimately may not be possible to ID it with any certainty, but at the moment, I don't have even a glimmer of immediate recognition.

Mark 

Tricky find as this could even at a pinch be Saxon period, probably 2ndC Roman silver fibular brooch fragment - reported as treasure to museum

Can't 'cook' it to remove horn silver crust unless disclaimed by British Musuem first

Amazing detail after 'cooking' on this crusty Roman silver fragment - sent off for ID

Checking my references for the Flavians, this type - ANNONA AVG. Annona enthroned left holding a bag of corn-ears in her lap - was struck for both Vespasian and Titus as Caesar in 78/9 AD.  Both used legends which would put the word CAESAR in the position in which it's visible on the obverse.  If you can detect any trace of a "T" before the CAESAR, then it would be Titus.  If you believe there is nothing at all before the CAESAR, then it is Vespasian.

Titus : T CAESAR VESPASIANVS
Vespasian : CAESAR VESPASIANVS

So I can't be 100% certain for whom it was struck (I think it's Vespasian) but the date and everything else would be the same except for a single letter in the obverse legend, and, of course, whether the bust was intended to portray father or son.

It's not possible at this point to be certain, but it is quite possible that this piece was at least halved in antiquity, in order to make change - perhaps even quartered, although the upper, curved break seems more likely to be accidental while the lower one looks more as though it was made with a chisel or other blade.

Mark

Ad dug

'Cooking'

Just about 'cooked'

2ndC Roman silver - straight into the 'cooker' to remove horn silver crust - R

Hadrian (117-138 DA) with Victory on the reverse.  A more detailed ID will have to wait for more legend to be revealed.

Mark

I stand with my original identification - Hadrian / Victory - but there are a few things I can add, now.  The obverse legend is IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG - quoting his official name which contains the name of his predecessor and adoptive father, Trajan.  The legend on the reverse is P M TR P COS III meaning Pontifex Maximum (head of the state religion) holder of the Tribunician Powers (ie: leader of the Plebeans as well as the Aristocracy) Consul for the 3rd time.

This allows us to date this piece.  Although Hadrian (117-138 AD) was consul only 3 times with his 3rd consulship coming very early in his reign, he was eligible to use "COS III" at any time after the fact - so that only brings the spread down to 119-138 AD.  Not too much help in and of itself.  However, this particular use of his list of titles dates specifically to the earlier part of his reign, c. 119 - 125 AD.  This particular type is part of the series issued specifically in 123 AD.

The reverse of this piece probably refers to a specific military victory rather than to "Victory" as an allegorical personification of an abstract virtue.  I don't know Hadrian's history well enough, however, to tell you what campaign or battle this might be commemorating.

Mark

2ndC Roman silver - straight into the 'cooker' to remove horn silver crust - S

On the strength of the portrait I'm willing to say that I'm almost positive that this is a denarius of Trajan (96-117 AD) and if so, this style of portrait tended only to be used relatively early in his reign (c. 96-100 AD).  I don't think I'll be able to tell you much more on the basis of the seated figure on the reverse. The nearly complete lack of legend on both sides - what little is visible is not of any help - will probably prevent me from making a positive ID. I don't know which personification or deity this is supposed to be.  I'll have a quick look through a list of types, but I rather suspect that there will be more than one which vaguely fits this description.  The one thing we have in our favor for a closer ID is that a figure seated to the right is somwhat unusual, most will face left.  The objects she is holding - a scepter and olive-branch (I think) - usually are Pax's attributes

Mark

1356-1361 Edward III hammered silver penny - Pre treaty series G, annulet stops

Obv EDWARDVS REX ANGLI

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Wierd silver Roman laminating badly as dug - sent off for ID

16.59mm, 1.42mm

Although in this shape with no remaining legends and a deteriorated portrait, about all I can do is make an educated guess.

I believe this is most likely Trajan - 96-117 AD - and the reverse type, which is clear enough to be certain about, is Fortuna.  She's depicted standing left holding a rudder and cornucopiae.

Fortuna was one of those "evergreen" reverse types, like Pax, and might turn up on the reverses of virtually anyone from the first 3 centuries of the Empire.

Mark

Ad dug

Cooking

Please let me see this when it gets a bit cleaner - I believe it is Magnentius, a short-lived usurper in the West, 350-353.  His silver is pretty rare.  This is the same fellow a lot of whose Centenionales you found and had to declare as a hoard last year or the year before.  Are you certain this is silver?  This type is quite common in Æ, but this is a very, very rare type in AR - and in fact, this would be an unpublished variety of Light Miliarense or a formerly completely unknown type of Siliqua (if it is silver and it is Magnentius).

Mark

C4th to 8thC Decorated and gilded helmet cheek piece - could be Roman or Saxon - checking ref books

75.02mm L

Stunning 17th/18thC gold posy ring - reported as treasure to museum

21.85mm,6.73g

Brilliant misspelled inscription

'AS I EXPECT SOE LET ME FIND

'A FAITHFUL FREIND AND A CONSTANT MIND'

10-40 AD Cunobelin Celtic gold qtr stater - Linear type

11.55mm, 1.33g

4th/5thC Roman silver coin sent for ID

Yes, it looks like one of the officially clipped siliquae created to agree with the size and weight for use as Sceattas.  There seems to be just enough of the bottoms of the letters on the left for me to say that I have a strong suspicion it's Valens - 364-378 AD.  If it is Valens, as I suspect it is, this VRBS ROMA reverse was struck with longer mint marks at only 4 mints - Trier, Lugdunum, Aquilea and Siscia. Rome struck it too, but with only 2 characters in the mint mark.  I can't be quite as sure about making a determination of the mint mark from a few random serifs as I think I can for the obverse legend, but based on what seems to be the centering of the mint mark, I believe it's more likely to consist of 6 characters than 4, meaning it's more likely to be from Siscia than any of the other 3 which used 4-character mint marks.

Mark

Continental hammered silver penny - researching it

BRABANT. Jean I, 1268-1294 AD. AR Esterlin (1.10 gm) of Antwerp. Shield of arms / Voided cross, WALT. VanG.160. dW.242. .

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny

Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Monster find Romano/British Chariot top Terret ring - this is enormous with gold, red enamelled

65mm high

Stunning Primary Saxon silver sceat - 600-775 AD sent to Fitzswilliam museum for recording and ID

11.53mm1.12g

This new find (EMC 2012.0106) is a good example of a late phase of the Vanimundus coinage (VaBII). Along with the Pada type, Vanimundus marks the transition from gold to silver coinage in the 670s/680s. Early coins in VaA are gold but late coins in VaBII are of silver with perhaps a small amount of gold.

Dr Martin Allen

Early Bronze Age and early Middle Bronze Age, c. 1600-1300 BC. Bronze Age chisel

99.9mm L x 16.9mm W

Huge crown sized silver 1760 George III coronation medallion

George III , the official silver medal for the coronation, 1761, by L. Natter, laur. and armoured bust r., variety with thinner bust with longer face, rev. King enthroned, crowned by standing Britannia, PATRIAE. OVANTI , normal Latin date MDCCLXI , 34mm. (Eimer 694; BHM 23A)

Stunning pure gold pendant - twister wire is Roman style and the knops are Tudor but the missing stone fittings a look Georgian.

At guess I would say 16th/17thC - reported to Colchester museum as treasure and their experts will ID

1.45g, 14.72mm

10-40 AD Cunobelin Celtic gold full stater - very rare bigga type

5.51g, 16.86

1215 Henry III hammered silver short cross half penny

Obv HENRICVS REX

Obv **ON.LVND - London mint

Huge C13thC lead seal matrix - dragon facing left

Not checked legend yet

1279 Edward 1st hammered silver penny - Cross Potent

Obv ED ***** DNS HYB

Obv CICI/TAS/EBO/RACI - York mint

Merovingian tremissis of the 7th century

Saxon gold coin - this is part of an existing hoard and reported as hoard to the museum

Sent to Fitzwilliam museum for ID and recording

This sucker is tiny and mint 1.30g, 10.21mm, totally different from the others

Many thanks. A preliminary trawl of the works of reference has not yet
produced any result unfortunatetely.

Best wishes,

 
Martin

I have not recorded this in EMC as it is probably not a single find.
There have to be a proper hoard publication in due course, but while the finds are still appearing that may be rather premature.

Best wishes,

Martin

Gold ring with full set of hall marks- London 1942 - Maker *B

1stC Celtic silver unit - straight into the 'cooker' to remove the horn crust

Cunobelin 20 AD Celtic silver coin

The Cunobelin silver is very nice, and a rare type at that. Seated figure facing left. The only standard reference for the type is no. 308 in Spink's Coins of England, it's not in Van Arsdell or the BM catalogue. You can see the amphora which the seated figure is holding quite clearly, but the CVNOBE doesn't show up too well on either. I don't have the exact figures here for rarity, but I don't think there are more than a dozen of these recorded at most. Date is perhaps somewhere in the middle of Cunobelin's reign, say perhaps c. 20-25 AD.

Thanks again for all these,
Best wishes
Philip

As dug

Cleaned

8thC Saxon Offa Rex silver penny - in 'cooker' to remove crust

sent to Fitzwilliam museum for ID and recording

Different type pf the other we have found

16.22mm,1.31g

The images of this new coin (EMC 2012.0110) are good enough to see that this is from the same dies as three of the five specimens of this type in Derek Chick's The Coinage of Offa and his Contemporaries (Chick 31c-31e). It may well look magnificent once it is cleaned.

Best wishes,

Martin

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny

Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1341 Edward III hammered silver florin penny - Cross 3

Obv EDWAR ANGLE DNS HYB

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1377-1399 Richard II hammered silver half penny - type b(i)

Obv +RICHARD REX ANGL

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

Merovingian tremissis of the 7th century

Saxon gold coin - this is part of an existing hoard and reported as hoard to the museum

Sent to Fitzwilliam museum for ID and recording

1.18g, 11.73mm

As dug

Cooked

This is in fantastic shape out of the ground and silver from the late centuries is hard to find - 'cooking' it to clean up the detail

Just sent it off for ID

16.99mm,1.16

This one pretty much has to be Julian II, but so far I have been unable to find this precise combination of obverse and reverse in RSC - I'm not all that familiar with volume V of RSC since all the later silver (mostly Siliquae) is an order or three of magnitude more rare, in general, than the silver Denarii and Antoniniani of earlier centuries.

I need to dig in the listings a bit more to confirm what I think about which emperor it is, but this is a Siliqua from the mint in Lyon France, then known as Lugdunum.

After a bit more work, this seems to be an unpublished variety of obverse legend for Julian for this type (VOTIS / V / MVLTIS / X) at Lugdunum.  I need to dig around a little more, but it's looking very like this is the case, since RIC VIII seems to agree with RSC V that this combination of legend and reverse type hasn't formerly been recorded.

Mark

'cooked'

2ndC Roman silver coin sent off for ID

This is another of the so-called "Tribute Pennies" - a denarius of Tiberius - he struck basically only this one type of denarius throughout his entire long (24 year!) reign between 14 & 37 AD.  The reverse is PONTIF MAXIM - referring to Tiberius' position as the head of the State religion, and the seated figure is generally accepted to be his mother, Livia.  If not, it's some generic personification - there are a couple theories which it might be, but generally people say Livia for the reverse.

Mark

1485 Henry VIII hammered silver half penny - 'brush hair' - wide cleft cross

Open crown type

Obv hENRIC DI GRA REX

Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint

1204-5 King John hammered silver short cross half penny- Class 5

Obv HENRICVS REX

Rev +ABEL.ON. *** Moneyer Abel of London mint

Stunningly crisp example of a 1280 1286 Alexander III Scottish hammered silver penny - 2nd Coinage

Stars have 6 points Ref SA3HD-005

Obv ALEXANDER DEI GRA

Rev SCO/TOR/VM+/REX

Scottish made 1634 Charles 1st coin weight - These weights have the initals of James 1st but were made under Charles 1st

Obv IIIIs beneath a crown

Rev Thistle IR

Medieval badges Ref Mitchiner p244 939 - 941

'A badge for a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in bronze and dating somewhere around C13/14th possibly very slightly later . This is a very scarce item and it relates to The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem being a Catholic chivalric order of Knighthood that traces its roots to Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade. According to reliable sources in the Vatican and Jerusalem, it began in historical reality as a mixed clerical and lay confraternity (association) of pilgrims which gradually grew around the most central of the Christian holy places in the Middle East, the Holy Sepulchre or the tomb of Jesus Christ.This would have been a pin for a member of the order , there is a mark on the reverse where the original pin would have been fixed '

1279 Edward 1st hammered silver penny

Obv **ANGL DNS **

Rev CIVI/TAS/CAN/TOR - Canterbury mint

Plain medieval gold ring - reported as treasure to museum

2.37g, 22.16mm

2ndC Roman silver coin - cooking it - sent for ID

From my first glance at the profile of the portrait, I said to myself "Hadrian", but the legend - which is semi-readable - appears to say Antoninus Pius at first glance - but on magnification, it seems more likely to be one of Marcus Aurelius' obverse legends (Antoninus Pius was Aurelius' adoptive father and the name part of his official title) - until I look at it in a different rotation - now I'm back to thinking it's Antoninus Pius

Basically, I'm really curious to see what comes out of the cooker - this is too vague to tell, so far.

Mark

See more finds on the 2012 Feb Finds Page 1

See more finds on the 2012 Feb Finds Page 2

See more finds on the 2012 April Finds