New gold coins of Carausius found

[maridvnvm]

Juat saw this and thought some people here might be interested:-

Two gold coins of the emperor Carausius have just been found on a construction site in the Midlands.......

http://www.finds.org.uk/wordpress/




Regards,
Martin

[mauseus]

Hi,

The helmeted one looks to be same issue as the ORIES AVG (sic) specimen that came to light during WW1 and ended up in the Bunker Hunt collection, more of which can be found HERE

Regards,

Mauseus

[monty]

wonderful coins, thanks for sharing.

i rember reading in an old treasure hunting magazine about a carausius aureus being found by a chap weeding his garden path in the 1970's.

ade

[mix_val]

Wow!!

A great find!

[Wolfpack]

It's amazing how poor the craftsmanship is on the dies for the 2nd coin (CONCORDIA MILITVM).   None of the "A"s have crossbars.  The "V"s don't even meet at a point.  The "M" in IMP is missing the middle.

[mauseus]

Hi,

The second coin (CONCORDIA MILITVM) is Rouen mint, from the very beginnning of the reign, and looks to be an obverse and reverse die duplicate of Beaujard & Huvelin II and III on plate 1 (page 88) and is thus a known type. The base metal radiates are similarly crude.

The helmeted unmarked PAX AVG from the London (?) mint is a new type.

Regards,

Mauseus

[Metrodorus]

Those are some beautiful aurei!

[aemilianus253]

Wow, what a wonderful find! Thanks a lot for sharing!   

[Mark Fox]

Dear Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

I reiterate what others have said:  that is some find and an exquisite picture!  But what about those gouges or nicks scattered across the coins?  Do you think they occurred in ancient times or are they possibly evidence that the coins were uncovered by a farm implement, like a rotavator? I mainly mean the CONCORDIA MILITVM specimen.


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan   

   

[monty]

hi mark,

i have been a metal detector user in GB on and off for the last 25 years, and from my own finds, a lot of coins found here do have marks like this on them. most i have put down to farming damage as you say. (i have often found broken hammered coins, and put this down to farm machines )

an other problem we seam to have here, is how badly corroded copper coins become (not so much bronze and other alloys of it though). this has always been blamed on farm chemicals. george ii/iii coppers rarely come out the ground in good order, very often just blank disc you can only i.d from size and an odd feature. 

roman gold is a rare find in GB particualry coins! these ones have a very bright colour, i wonder how they were cleaned. most early freshly found gold i have seen have wonderful patinas, not unlike the ORIES AVG coin shown.

cheers, ade

[Mark Fox]

Dear monty and Fellow Ancient Coin Enthusiasts!

That must be heartbreaking, monty!  I have done some metal detecting here in Michigan too, but I have found nothing older than 1913 I am afraid...   

About the area where the Carausian aurei were found: is it a profitable spot for unearthing these and other coins?


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan

[monty]

Hi Mark, I used to live in the “west” midlands. All my roman finds came from there. Its not the best area though, it was on the edge of the main civilian occupation of Britain. I think for the best roman areas you need to go to the eastern side of the country, particularly the south east. (I say this carefully as I know the north west has some hot spots like Chester)

The midlands is very good for medieval finds though, hammered coins turn up regularly.

I have lived in Mid Wales for the last 10 years, I have had no roman finds here, although I do know people that have been lucky. This area of the country in roman times was sparsely populated, with most activity been military or industrial, so finds tend to be confined to small areas.

My oldest coin find was a very worn Mark Anthony legionary denarius. Many years ago I also found a Hadrian Britannia "as", but sadly I sold it at the time, something I have regretted an awful lot since.

Regards,  ade