Coin hoard spans Roman republic to first emperor

A hoard of 13 silver coins found in a field was probably lost in the wake of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43, according to a historian.

The discovery was made by a metal detectorist in a field near Downham Market, Norfolk, in September and is the subject of a treasure inquest.

The denarii date from the late 2nd Century BC, in the last tumultuous decades of the Roman republic, to the first Roman emperors and could have been a purse loss.

"Of course, we've no way of knowing whose it was, but it could have been lost by one of the invaders," said coin expert Adrian Marsden.

The Roman Republic lasted from 509 to 27BC and a series of unrest and civil wars in the 1st Century BC marked its transition to an empire.

"The oldest coin in the hoard dates back to 152BC and has worn smooth over the two centuries it was in use," said Dr Marsden, a numismatist from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service.

"This reveals they've got a stable economy, without changes to the denominations, so coins like this can remain in circulation for a long, long time."

One of denarii was struck by the Roman dictator Sulla (138 to 79BC), who won the first full-scale civil war in Roman history.

"Another was struck by Julius Caesar [about 100 to 44BC] a couple of years before he was assassinated, a second by Mark Antony [83 to 30BC] and a third by his rival and winner of that civil war, the first Roman emperor Augustus [63BC to AD14]," said Dr Marsden.

The most recent coin of the 13 came from the reign of Octavian's stepson, the second emperor Tiberius (AD14 to 37).

It was the latter's nephew, the emperor Claudius (10BC to 54AD), who ordered the invasion of Britain in AD43, eventually leading to a Romano-British province which lasted until 5th Century.

Dr Marsden described it as "one of the more interesting" hoards to cross his desk in the past year.

"It is earlier than most of the silver denarii hoards we see and it's got this drum roll of coins from the late republic through to the early empire," he said.

A coroner decides if a discovery is treasure and a museum usually gets first refusal over whether to add it to its collection.

In this case, the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn hopes to be able to acquire it.

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