Description

Summary: coin hoard, Romano British, c.3rd century. 1608 Roman coins found at Warborne Farm, Boldre, by metal detectorists in 2014. Coins found in situ in a Romano-British pottery vessel, the top of which had been removed presumably from ploughing (base, some body, no rim-15 sherds in total).

Identification note: The hoard was declared treasure by the coroner in 2015. The earliest coin dates to the reign of Trebonianus Gallus (AD 249-251) and the latest was struck in AD 276 towards the end of the reign of Tacitus. The coins are displayed in the pot they were found in, which has undergone conservation and reconstruction work at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, June 2017. St Barbe Museum was able to buy the hoard with generous support from the V&A Purchase Grant Fund and the Headley Trust, supplemented by an award-winning local fundraising campaign. All coins and pottery to be indivdually catalogued in due course.

Identification note: The Boldre Hoard consists of 1,608 coins, dating from AD 249 to 276. They were issued by 12 different emperors, ruling from both Rome and the breakaway Gallic Empire, and probably buried in the late third century. The coins are all radiates, so-called because of the radiate crown worn by the emperors they depict. Each coin’s official value was a double denarius, meaning the whole hoard could be worth half a year’s pay for a soldier. Over 600 coin hoards of this date have been found in Britain. No one knows exactly why coins were buried, but possibilities include: to keep savings secure, as there were no local banks; to store large numbers of low value coins or to retain high value coins in a period of devaluation; to hide the spoils of war or the proceeds of theft; to consecrate a building or as an offering to the gods.