COIN

There are only two pre-260 coins, one a silver denarius of Hadrian and the other probably a plated denarius of Septimius Severus.Such forgeries are common as site-finds, it being more likely that such pieces would be discarded than regular silver pieces.There are only two radiate coins from the second half of the 3^rd century.

The vast majority of the coins are 4th century, 20 of the 24 identified coins falling between 326 and 395/402.Within this group, the bulk of the coins fall between 330 and 378 which is common for rural sites.The presence of three Theodosian coins from 388-395/402 is not unexpected in Kent where enormous numbers of such coins were found at Richborough (Reece 1991, site 119).The predominance of these late coins in the East of the Province is underlined by the hoard evidence (Guest 1997, 423, Fig. 5b).

The unusual disposition of these coins will probably always remain a mystery, but they are a reasonable sample for a rural site in Roman Britain.

References:

R. Reece, Roman Coins from 140 sites in Britain (Cotswold Studies, Vol IV, 1991)

P. Guest, ' Hoards from the end of Roman Britain', in Coin Hoards from Roman Britain (vol X), eds. R. Bland and J. Orna-Ornstein (British Museum Press, 1997), pp. 411-423

The coins are in generally poor condition, many being broken, fragmented or abraded.This does suggest that they were not stored together in a secure place when lost, but were open to the vagaries of natural and human processes.

As these coins do not appear to come from a single context or hoard, they do not qualify as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996.