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File:A complete gold coin, Roman with Early Medieval perforated holes (5th to 10th century). (FindID 253929).jpg

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A complete gold coin: Roman with Early Medieval perforated holes (5th to 10th century).
Photographer
None, Felicity Winkley, 2009-06-12 12:55:00
Title
A complete gold coin: Roman with Early Medieval perforated holes (5th to 10th century).
Description
English: A complete Early Medieval gold perforated Roman coin (6th to early 7th century). It is a Visigothic imitation of a gold tremissis of Libius Severus (AD 461-5), VICTORIA AVGGG type. RIC X no. 3759.

Obverse: Diademed, draped bust right.
Obverse inscription: [D N SEVERVS P F AVG]
Reverse: Victory holding a cross
Reverse inscription: [VICTO]R[IA] AV[GGG]
Die axis measurement: 6.00

Dimensions: Diameter: 13.54mm; weight: 1.14g.

Curator's report: A gold tremissis (? of a full gold piece known as a solidus) in the name of the Roman Emperor Severus III (AD 461-5). It shows his bust and has a reverse depicting Victory holding a cross, but is in a crude imitative style generally attributed from findspot evidence to the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse. It has been pierced nine times at intervals all along edge. Piercings at 3 and 9 o'clock (viewed from obverse) have broken at the edge. Presumably the number of holes was made in order to fix to a textile or leather backing.

Metal content?
At this period great efforts were made by the Romans and Byzantines to refine gold and silver for their coinage (they carried mint-markings guaranteeing the processes) and such coins were usually as pure as was then technologically possible (i.e. greater than 95%). Although late Roman legal writing implies a distrust of Gallic imitative gold coinage, modern scientific testing suggests a gold purity in the region of 80-90%.

Conclusion
A single coin would not normally qualify as treasure, but this piece has been modified into an appliqué ornament, probably in England in the sixth or early seventh century, when coin-jewellery of this type was fashionable, and must therefore be considered as a single object, rather than a single coin, within the context of the Treasure Act (1996), and there is well-established legal precedent for this position.

On the balance of probabilities, therefore, I conclude that this artefact should constitute a prima facie case of treasure by being an item of precious metal jewellery of an antiquity greater than 300 years.

Richard Abdy
Dept. of Coins and Medals
British Museum
19.6.09
Depicted place (County of findspot) Kent
Date between 500 and 700
Accession number
FindID: 253929
Old ref: LON-1C22F5
Filename: Young - gold coin - June 09.jpg
Credit line
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme started in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales. Finds are published at https://finds.org.uk
Source https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/213922
Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/213922/recordtype/artefacts archive copy at the Wayback Machine
Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/253929
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 Attribution-ShareAlike License version 4.0 (verified 19 November 2020)

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current17:24, 27 January 2017Thumbnail for version as of 17:24, 27 January 20171,361 × 810 (595 KB)Fæ (talk | contribs)Portable Antiquities Scheme, LON, FindID: 253929, early medieval, page 170, batch count 2447

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