Among the substantial assemblage of Roman material found by our dedicated volunteer detectorists was a large collection of Roman coins. By the end over 800 had been recovered, I helped to identify what I could, but I had to call in the cavalry in the form of PAS advisors Dr Sam Moorhead and Dr Philippa Walton. They helped me identify the pesky ‘grots’ (poorly made and often corroded coins) that I was struggling with. In the end we identified most of the Roman coins and Philippa did some analysis. Most of the coins were found in a tight scatter along with other artefacts such as brooches (more in the next blog) Using Reece period analysis (coins are divided into short time periods to allow comparison) it became clear that the coin profile was odd. Sam said that Leicestershire was generally odd, but this site was more so!
The profile (see graph) shows that the site covers most of the Roam period (which can be explained by the settlement), but has a peak of activity between periods 14 to 16 (AD 275 to 318) this could indicate a concealed early 4th C hoard, or provide evidence for when the site was busiest. Either way, the large number of coins in this context suggests votive activity.
