Thornbury Hoard

[wellinghall]

We went to Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery on Sunday. Among other exhibits, they had the Thornbury Hoard - 14,600 (I think) small coins, each one a nummus of copper alloy, from around 330 AD. They had been buried in an urn or pot.

There was a bit of commentary with them - when they were made, where they were made, who was depicted on them, how they were found etc. But it didn't address the question of why there were so many coins of identical value.

So, oh wise FList - any ideas???

Comments

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Someone was saving small change for a late-antiquity laundrette?

[tree_and_leaf]

It was actually someone's change jar/ piggy bank.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Standard pay for soldiers? Were they minted locally?

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Tribute?
Symbolic gift?
They came direct from the mint?

No silly answers here, I'm afraid :(

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I'd wondered whether it would be something to do with pay - but I'd need to know more about the Roman military than I do.

[gurthaew.livejournal.com]

It could be as simple as someone had stolen the soldiers' pay. All sorts of coin hoards have been found - I have one sitting on the mantelpiece, a clay pot full of Chinese cash coins. The silver pennies of William I were amongst his rarest denominations until someone dug up 2,500 of them, now they are the commonest. Again, no-one knows why they were buried.

Apart from grave goods, hoards seem to be buried away from human habitation, and concealment seems to be the common factor. In the days before banks, the best place to hide something was to bury it.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I'd be more surprised if they were of different denominations. Looking around the house, we have a jar full of one and two pence coins (because those are the ones that are least useful and clutter up the purse), a purse full of one pound coins (for the laundrette) and several bags of 10p and 20p coins kept as change for cat show sale table float.

I imagine that ancient peoples sorted coins (and, indeed, tokens and cowrie shells) into denominaitons for much the same purposes (even the laundry).

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

So perhaps the archaeologists should have also looked a few feet to the left, where they might have found the Just Outside Thornbury Hoard, consisting of the next denomination up?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was a Roman swear box, and people had to deposit a nummus every time they said "merda!" What with all the usurpers and barbarian raiders, which caused even the most polite of Romano-British chap to resort to expletives every now and then, they very soon accumulated a lot of cash. It stands as a vivid and poignant reminder of the stresses experienced by the ordinary inhabitants of a dying Empire.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Counterfeit.

[segh.livejournal.com]

Roman shops charged 499 nummi for most items. As there was a gold 500-nummus piece, this meant that one was always having to give one nummus in change. You've come across a shop-keeper's stock of change.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Late 3rd century, so certainly there was scope for locally-minted coins. If there weren't any in a hoard of that size, I suppose that's a mystery in itself.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

I THINK (but don't have anything at home to check this for you - sorry) that Roman soldiers were paid in high denominations which caused problems so there was incventive to keep (and for the enterprising) to make coins of small denominations which were actually useful for using locally.

So the piggy bank idea is quite sensible...

I am about to go back to reading about treason law in early Rome and if I come across anything relevant, will report back!

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

My guess would be that it was the treasury box of a toll station or a tax collection box. Although sometimes taxes could be paid in good rather than coin. But a road toll would make sense: a nummus for a particular stretch of road. That would explain why it's all one denomination, and why so much of it.

It's fun to consider the possibilities.