THE COINS
BY GEORGE MACDONALD, M.A., LL.D.
THE Coins recovered during the recent excavations at Newstead numbered 249 in all, 98 being of silver and 151 of brass or copper. While the few that came from the bottom of pits or of ditches were unusually well preserved, the great majority of the rest were in such poor condition that the task of identification was often difficult, albeit it was materially lightened by the never-failing help and patience of the Medal Room staff in the British Museum. Ultimately only is pieces—1 of silver and the others of brass or copper—had to be definitely set aside as hopeless. The remaining 234 constitute a series sufficiently extensive to deserve careful analysis. Besides these, the following lists include 27 specimens—5 of gold, 16 of silver, and 5 of brass or copper—authentically recorded as having been picked up or ploughed up upon the site, chiefly in the course of the nineteenth century; they are distinguished by an asterisk, and it must be understood that they are described at second-hand. Notices of other finds are too vague to be of value for statistical purposes.
Normally, the contents of a hoard are important mainly as indicating the character of the money current in a particular district at the time when they were withdrawn from circulation, and so as throwing light on the chronology of issues of doubtful date. The significance of a series like the present is entirely different. Properly interpreted, it may help in determining the limits of the period or periods during which the spot with which it is associated was in Roman occupation. As the canons to be applied to each of the various metals are not necessarily the same, it is desirable that gold, silver, and brass or copper should be catalogued separately. We shall begin with the gold.
AUREI | |||
| NO. | OBVERSE. | REVERSE. | REMARKS. |
NERO | |||
UNDATED | |||
| 1* | NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS Head l. laureate. | IVPPITER CVSTOS Jupiter seated l., holding thunderbolt and sceptre. Cohen2 i. p. 287, 118. | Found in 1862: Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. V. p. 108. |
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