What is believed to be the oldest Roman coin ever found in Britain makes its museum debut, 2220 years after it was made. The silver denarius coin is now on display at Harborough Museum, Market Harborough alongside other coins that were excavated with it. It is 4 years older than the coin previously thought to be the oldest surviving example.
The coin was found during excavation of a site near the village of Hallaton, Leicestershire. It is one of over 5000 Iron Age and Roman coins found at the site, believed to be a Late Iron Age shrine of the Corieltavi tribe dating to the 1st century AD. Archaeologists believe the coins were buried as gifts to the gods with other incredible finds including a richly decorated Roman cavalry helmet, a unique silver bowl and the remains of over 300 pigs.
Helen Sharp, Hallaton Treasure project manager, said the coin was actually discovered in the year 2000, and had been kept in low humidity storage at the museum for nearly ten years until archaeologists were able to date the artefact. She said: “It was such a big surprise when we found out it is the oldest Roman coin in the country – it was dug up a decade ago. It is such a huge task to log and date coins, the hoard was so large. The coin was finally dated in 2009, but we didn’t realise it was Britain’s oldest until this week. It is really exciting that treasure discovered ten years ago can still keep surprising us.”
The finds were declared Treasure and acquired by Leicestershire County Council for permanent display at Harborough Museum which opened its specially designed Hallaton Treasure Gallery in September 2009.
David Sprason, County Council Cabinet Member for Communities and Wellbeing said: “Leicestershire boasts the largest number of Iron Age coins ever professionally excavated in Britain in the Hallaton Treasure. To also have the oldest Roman coin ever found is something very special.”
The coin, a silver denarius dated to 211 BC, depicts the goddess Roma wearing her characteristic helmet on the front. The mythical twins, Castor and Pollux, sit astride galloping horses on the reverse. The type of coin known as a denarius was first struck in Rome in 211 BC, making the Hallaton coin a very early version. A soldier or unskilled worker living in the 1st century AD could expect to earn 1 denarius for a day’s work.
How this coin came into the possession of the local Corieltavi tribe is an intriguing mystery. The fact that the coin is fairly worn perhaps suggests the preceding 250 years were spent on the continent, only later arriving in Britain in the purse of an invading Roman soldier post AD 43. However, some archaeologists speculate that Roman Republican coins such as this were finding their way into Britain before the Roman conquest and are evidence of exchange through trade or diplomacy. If this is so, then the Hallaton coin is evidence of early Roman contact in the East Midlands, an area previously seen as something of a backwater during the Late Iron Age.
The previous oldest known Roman coin found in Britain was discovered by metal detectorist Malcolm Langford and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme last year. It dates to 207 BC.
