Strange uncleaned lot

[SC]

I dropped by the flea market today and picked up a lot of 90 uncleaned coins.  It is certainly one of the strangest lots I have ever had.  Not just the coin size - the average size is much larger than you usually find these days - but the holes.

Of the 90 coins 49 have one or more holes.  (41 have 1 hole, 6 have 2 holes and 2 have 3 holes.)  Some holes are square, but most are round.  Two are very thick coins - likely late sestertii or provincial equivalents - and have large diameter holes which might even have been lathe-drilled.  All the holes have the same patina as the surfaces showing they are ancient.

Over 30 of the holed coins are identifiable as is and there is quite an interesting array of Emperors - Titus, Trajan, Hadrian, Aurelian, Tacitus, Probus, Carus, Salonina, Severina, Constantius Chlorus, Divo Claudio (under Constantine), Helena, Constantine and all four of his sons, Constantius Gallus, Julian II or Jovian and an Urbs Roma.

Shawn

[Jay GT4]

I like these holed coins.  I have a theory about the double holed ones being used as part of a squamata. It fits with how the regular scale was holed and attached but I can't prove it. 

[SC]

Jay,

I doubt they could be used as squamata as the number and placement of holes varies too much.

I have heard they were attached to military standards.  However, I would think that would be very rare compared to the relatively large number that are found.

I have also heard they were attached to shields.  Shields were certainly more common than standards.

Fischer's excellent German language book on the Roman Military shows and image of two early 3rd century coins riveted to the iron plate of part of a lorica segmentata armour!

By the way, is that your squamata in the image??

Shawn
 

[Lee S]

In my head, your coins were prised off a collection of shields and standards as spoils of battle, perhaps a lower standing person , as they would be quite far down the food chain of battle plunder.. And then put away some where "safe" for the next 1 and a half millennia... Only to end up on your desk

    For sure, even though the individual value is no doubt lower because of the holes, if these coins could speak, they no doubt have a much richer history than any fine gold solidi!!

[Jay GT4]

No not my sqamata  .  Picture was taken at a back door tour of the ROM. 

Perhaps not a squamata but fitting it to a piece of clothing or armor is not out of the question.  I know it's TV but in the series "Rome" Erastus Fulmen has a tunic with coins sewn onto it.  Not historically accurate but perhaps it was done to a lesser extent. Having two holes makes a great attachment method so it doesn't flip around on a base of some kind.  If it was on a shield one hole would suffice.  Just nail it on...

[ionutbd]

In my opinion the holed coin was used in some kind of neclace. It is very common piece of jewelery in the balkans (perhaps of thracian inspiration). Like this example of the Middle Ages

[SC]

Ionutbd raises a good point.  I too have read of finds of Roman coins, including holed ones in later contexts - including in Avar,  Bulgar and early Slav graves.

It would be interesting to know if the type of hole or number of holes have any meaning.

Also the type of finds.  One would suspect jewelry, like the necklace posted above, would use coins of similar size and date.  So what about a group of coins spanning three centuries and many sizes.

Shawn

[ionutbd]

In Romania, this type of neclace is called „salbă” and passed form mother to daughter from generation to generation. It is a common artifact for romanian folk culture and tradition. It express the social status of the women and her family. The neclace, called „salbă” also combine many type of coins, as it passed from generation to generation (in the pictures below I can identify ottoman, austrohungarian, romanian and many other on the same neclace; also you can notice another type of neclace wich uses a different way to hold the coins).

[ionutbd]

The coins found in graves served for another purpose: for paying the socalled „Charon obol” - basically a tax for the underworld. The coins were holled and tied to one of the fingers (usually the little finger) of the dead person. Or they were putted on the forehead or on the eyebals of the dead person for the same reason (underworld addmision).
This custom can even now be observed in the Romanian rural comunities like a traditional thing to do at the burial of a dead person.

[RoryduPondius]

probably like a chain mail set or something like that