388 AD Theodosius I gold solidus 4.40g, 20.26mm

This is, as you later suspected, Theodosius I rather than Magnus Maximus.  A solidus of "Mag Max" would be a great item to find - Kipling included him as a character in "Puck of Pook's Hill" with a vividly-drawn, if fairly historically inacurate portrait.  He's a good bit scarcer, in general, than Theodosius I, but the coin we're looking at today carries an "R2" rating in RIC, so it's pretty scarce as well.

 

This is a Solidus - the denomination introduced by Constantine the great which would continue to be struck with very little variation in weight or fineness for nearly another thousand years as it became the flagship coin of the Byzantine empire.

Your specimen was minted at Trier, between 388 and 392 A.D.  The "COM" in the exergue refers to it being pure gold - the mint designation is the T - R to either side of the two characters on the reverse - who are meant to be 2 co-regnal emperors - the basic design goes back to the time of Valentinian I and Valens, but continued until, at this time, it was supposed to be Valentinian II and Theodosius I as the 2 senior Augusti, there was however (throughout the era) a 3rd and even, at times, a 4th emperor. 

The obverse legend is D N THEODOSIVS P F AVG - with the normal diademed draped and cuirassed bust right. 

The reverse is VICTORIA AVGG (the 2 "G's" abbreviating "Augustorum" referring to multiple emperors) and shows the 2 emperors, presumably Valentinian II and Theodosius I seated facing, holding a globe between them, the top half of Victory between and spreading her wings above them.

 

RIC IX Trier 90b.

 

Congratulations to you and the digger - What a great find!

 

Mark

From a duckling to a swan ! Crusty Roman coin, pick it and heh presto ! Roman Republican denarius of Vibius, 42 BC found by Milwaukee Mike.

obv. Helmeted bust of Minerva r., wearing aegis. Border of dots.
rev. C.VIBIVS VARVS, Herculus standing facing, holding club in r. hand and lion-skin overl. arm. Border of dots

Hard to imagine the skill required in those days to to put two thin gold sheets over a bronze inner. Contemporary forgery of 'Clacton' type gold stater circa 70 BC

Cunoblein stater hoard with corn and horse design found by Virginia Brian(g)From left to right

CCI 04.0477 'classic A' series, VA 2027-1. Generally believed to have been the last major series of his gold, so probably dating from the 30s AD. There are three or four matches for this particular pair of dies in the CCI, among the c. 100 of the basic type. The decoration at the base of the corn-ear is a bit more showy than usual.

CCI 04.0478 'plastic A' series, VA 2010-3. Believed to have preceded the classic type, so perhaps from c. 25 - 35 AD. About ninety of these are recorded here, and again there are a number of matches for both of these dies, including at least one coin in the British Museum (BMC 1819 in Hobbs's Catalogue of Iron Age coins in the BM).

CCI 04.0479 'linear' series, VA 1925-1. The earliest of these three, perhaps from c. 20 AD, and a little rarer, with about 60 recorded here. Again there is a coin in the BM from the same pair of dies, BMC 1783. There are a couple of rather unusual features to the dies - although not clear on your example because of the position it has been struck, there appears to be no V on the end of CAMV, and there's also a mark - perhaps some kind of privy mark - after the CVN on the reverse, you can just see the top of what looks like a letter I between the N and the horse'sfront legs on your coin.

Celtic gold 1/4 stater Addedomaros Floral Trinovantes tribe, 30 BC found by Billericay Mark

'CCI No 04.0680 is the quarter stater, VA 1623. Probably an issue of Addedomaros, so similar date to the stater VA 1620, although since there's no inscription we can't be certain. The style of the horse is very like other coins of Addedomaros though so it's a reasonable guess. Just under 60 of these recorded'

(b)

'This is an example of the Clacton 1/4 stater - it's not listed in VA, but there's one in the British Museum catalogue, at BMC 192 (where it's incorrectly attributed to the Corieltauvi). These coins were virtually unknown until the 1980s, but we now have records of more than 50 of them, predominantly from Essex, and it seems certain to be the quarter stater type associated with the full Clacton stater. There is strong Gallo-Belgic influence, as you mention - the obverse seems to be copied from the 'three men in a boat' design found on the imported Gallo-Belgic quarter staters, while the reverse is indeed nearly identical to the Clacton stater type. Its date is probably c. 50 BC.

This one will be in the Index as CCI 04.2136'. found by Manhattan Gary

Cunoblein 40AD - 1/4 Gold stater found by Boston Bud

'many thanks for these, they're both very fine coins. The Dubnovellaunus stater is VA 1655-5, and will be CCI 04.2295. We have records of just under 100 of the basic Dubnovellaunus stater type (VA 1650-1655); it can be very difficult to split them further without studying the individual dies, because key motifs such as the inscription are often off the edge of the flan, as here. In fact this example is struck a long way off-centre on the reverse, since it's unusual to see just about the whole of the motif beneath the branch under the horse.

The Cunobelin quarter is rarer. It's actually the so-called 'plastic' type, VA 2017 (CCI 04.2296). The key to its identification is that it's the only Cunobelin type which has CAM CVN on the obverse, rather than the usual CAMV. We have records of just 17 other examples. There are also other, rarer subtypes, which have A or AGR on the reverse coupled with this obverse'.

Morini ' boat tree' type c 70BC Celtic quarter stater

'As you say it is the Morini boat/tree type. The closest catalogue reference would be Van Arsdell 69-1, though as you realize it's not quite the same, but has all those extra little crosses around the boat. This is not particularly uncommon - we have at least 60 or 70 examples of this among the 700 or so of the basic quarter stater type - but it is quite unusual to see them as well displayed as here. It's arguable that this variety ought to be given some sort of separate catalogue entry, but for the time being it falls into the VA 69 bracket.
This one will be CCI 04.2470'

Silver Denarius of Octavian/Augustus,

Cohen/Roman Silver Coins no.
91, Crawford 538/1, assigned to c. 36 BC.

Roman Republican denarius, Crawford 390/2

Moneyer:l.Lvcreti Trio, Mint Rome 76 BC

obv:laureate head of neptune facing right with trident over shoulder, behind is a control mark. rev winged boy on dolphin speeding right,below L.LVCRETI border of dots TRIO 3.73g, 18.08 mm.

4thC Roman bronze

'Your coin is a "BEATA TRANQVILLITAS" altar type and appears to be from either London or Trier mint - the exergual mintmark is too vague in your picture to be sure - these date to the early Constantinian era, pre 324 A.D'

"Silvered" AE follis of Constantius I (Constantine the great's father) as Caesar c. 295-305 A.D. The Obverse inscription is (probably) [FL VAL] CONSTANTIVS NOB C - his laureate and cuirassed bust right. The reverse inscription is GENIO POPVLI ROMANI "(To) the genius (spirit) of the Roman People" with Genius standing left holding a patera in his right hand and a cornucopia in his left. Unfortunately, I can't make out the mintmark - in the exergual space on reverse - under the "ground line" upon which Genius stands - so I can't give you a definitive attribution - if you can make out letters in this area, let me know and I'll give you RIC # and exact dates.
 

'The series in general is universal, ie: this type was struck at all mints in the empire for several years during a general re-tooling of the money system - so in great numbers, but certain officinae at certain mints striking for certain personages may be considered common, scarce or rare. It's certainly "important" in its greater British context since Constantius' victories in the area were instrumental in getting him promoted to the Tetrarchy in the first place, and by extension, his son Constantine the Great and his whole brood who would dominate the scene for the next 50 '

Large Roman in great shape 11.97g - 30mm Neronian VICTORIA AVGVSTI S C dupondius

'It would date to 50 AD to 68 AD based on date of minting but keep in mind that by the time the coin traveled all the way to Britain and acquired as much wear as it enjoys, it was probably deposited in that field where your guy found it 20 to 30 years later and possibly as late as Hadrian's time (117 AD plus.) (These things circulated a long time sometimes.)

The rarity of the coin is certainly in the "scarce" category'

Chicago Keith's and Chicago Ron's full Celtic staters

Left example 5.64g 16mm CCI 05.0212
Right example 5.54 g 17mm CCI 05.0213

Addedomaros type 45- 30 BC 17mm 5.50g not in any major reference book Canadian Rod

'This will be CCI 05.0283. What is unusual about it is that the reverse is struck quite far off-centre, so that much more of the inscription is visible than is usually the case. Although the initial A of Addedomaros is not visible (at least I can't make it out on this image), what you can see then reads DDIID working clockwise round the top of the horse - with the first two Ds represented by the Greek letter theta (so with a bar across the middle), then the II representing the fourth letter, E, then a conventional D for the next letter. And obviously the rest of the inscription would carry on round in front of the horse's head and beneath the cornucopia under the horse. It is more common to see these coins offstruck so that the lower part of the design is visible, and relatively very rare to see the early part of the inscription as you can here'.

CCI 05.0283

Addedomaros 45- 30 BC found by Mass Linda 19 mm 5.45g

CCI 05.0285

Addedomaros 45- 30 BC found by Canadian Rod 17mm 5.42g sent to CCI for logging

Addedomaros 45- 30 BC found by Mass Linda 18 mm 5.62 g

CCI 05.0286

Addedomaros type 45- 30 BC - 5.53g 18mm

Veggie Mike

CCI 05.0290

Addedomaros type 45- 30 BC 5.62g 17mm

Mass Linda

CCI 05.0291

Addedomaros type 45- 30 BC 5.63g17mm

Mass Bruce

'The 'burnt' one is curious, can't really tell whether a lot of that will clean off or not from the image. It's interesting that so far, most of the coins are really quite worn - which suggests that these coins had been around for a while before they were buried. So subject to further finds etc, at the moment I'd guess a burial date somewhere round 20 BC, perhaps even a few years later'.

CCI 05.0293

Addedomaros type 45- 30 BC 5.57g 16mm

Mass Bruce

CCI 05.0292

'This coin seems to be an official, though highly worn sestertius of either Vespasian or Titus - I think I can see "VES.." in the obverse inscription from about 9:00-10:00. Since they both were portrayed looking nearly alike and Titus used VESP in his inscriptions, it would be difficult to say which of the two it is from your photo, but you could fairly safely date this to the 60's & 70's A.D'.

Trinovantes Clacton Celtic gold 1/4 stater 50 BC 1.29g 14mm CCI 05.296

'yet another very interesting coin. This is a Clacton quarter stater, unlisted in Van Arsdell but in the British Museum catalogue (in the wrong place, with the Corieltauvi) as BMC 192, and in 'Coins of England' as no. 42. These coins were almost unknown in the late 1980s, but there are now about 60 of them recorded here, mostly from Essex and Suffolk. The reverse design is basically the same as the better-known Clacton stater (VA 1455), while the obverse has yet another interpretation of the three men in a boat design, here with two 'men', and sometimes looking like a human face. Unfortunately not readily visible on this one, though you should be able to pick out the outline of the boat.

Of those 60 or so examples, possibly as few as two are struck from the same reverse die as this coin, which has several large flaws and is probably from late in the series (as the use of a nearly plain obverse die also suggests). Both of the earlier two coins came from Suffolk, one from Ipswich and the other near Alderton. The type probably dates to c. 50 BC and was definitely a production of the Trinovantes.

45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold coin 5.58g, 15.72mm CCI 05.0752 found by Mass Bruce

Chicago Ron's 'Snettisham' type ? Celtic gold full stater 5.85g - 17.05mm

'Having seen this one I've had to think again about 05.0680, the Whaddon Chase type I wrote about earlier. Although quite different in their individual style these are probably both the same variety of WC stater, actually listed as VA 1498. This is a rather puzzling type because it's not clear whether it really belongs to the WC group or - as you suggested - the Snettisham type. There are 18 examples of it here and those with findspots are a mixture of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk - on that basis it could arguably be either WC or Snettisham. In terms of style, they are perhaps among the very last WC staters rather than being the first Snettisham, which appear to have been based on the Whaddon Chase design. In terms of date this might only be a difference of a few months, and almost certainly not more than a few years, so it's perhaps unreasonable to expect we'll be able to tie it down quite so neatly. CCI 05.0687'.

Wis Dave's 1/4 Uninscribed Celtic gold stater 1.43g, 12.98mm

'Yes, this is interesting. It's an uninscribed quarter stater, traditionally attributed to the Atrebates (in the South Thames) but almost certainly a North Thames issue. We have records of about 25 of them, and without exception they've come from the North Thames area: it was previously attributed to the Atrebates because of the style, which resembles their uninscribed quarter staters with a wreath on the obverse. The date of this quarter would be around c. 45 BC, I would estimate, so like the Whaddon Chase it could be just a little earlier than the Addedomaros coins. It is catalogued in Van Arsdell as VA 260-1, but not only wrongly as Atrebates but also listed as silver. Many of the surviving examples are struck from the same pair of dies, which develop some fairly major flaws, especially on the reverse; the lack of many dies suggests this wasn't a very big issue, in comparison to the Addedomaros spiral for example.

If I remember rightly there are one or two examples of this type in the huge East Leicestershire hoards which came up about 3 years ago, but mostly they're Essex/Suffolk area. This'll be CCI 05.0683'.

Ark Gary's second 45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold stater 5.50g, 16.35mm

CCI 05.0679

Illinois Tim's 45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold stater 5.63g, 17.96mm

CCI 05.0678

Chicago Ron's Celtic gold stater 'Whadden Chase' type 5.95g, 17.68 mm

The Whaddon Chase stater (yes, it is that type) will be CCI 05.0680. These coins are probably not very much earlier than the Addedomaros staters - it all depends really on when one dates the Addedomaros issue. It seems fairly certain that the Whaddon Chase staters could be from the later stages of the Gallic War, say about 54 BC at the earliest; they could be a little bit later, but are unlikely to be after say 40 BC at the very latest. If Addedomaros's spiral staters are his latest stater issues, then they could be somewhere around 30-25 BC, so perhaps up to 25 years later than Whaddon Chase. It just depends where each type fits, and we don't have an exact idea. I suppose it's true to say though that there is almost certainly a minimum of ten years between them, and more likely 20.

One of my colleagues recently suggested that the WC staters were issued by Cassivellaunus, to pay off Caesar during the Gallic War. They certainly seem to be found mostly in the territory of the Catuvellauni (so this one would be a bit further east than usual . The main catalogue reference for this type is VA 1476 in Van Arsdell's 'Celtic Coinage of Britain'. They're relatively common (300 or so recorded) but a lot of these are finds from the original WC hoard, found in Bucks in 1849.

45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold full stater 5.51g - 19.05 mm found by Ohio Mike

This one will be CCI 05.0667.

As you say, a very well-used reverse die. I think I recognize the die - after looking at these quite intensively over the last year or two, the individual dies start to become recognizable. The obverse is on the other hand pretty sharp, and must have been struck from a fairly fresh die.'

45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold full stater found by Florida Don

'this one's a real cracker!

Certainly one of the best I've recorded in recent years, with just a little wear, as you say. The quality of the engraving is also extremely high - I'm sure these must have been among the first dies engraved for this type. The horse's muzzles which I mentioned last time are particularly neat here, it's really unusual to see them quite so clearly. I also suspect, though I haven't worked out how to prove it yet, that the coins with the pellets between the spiral arms are the earlier examples of this type.

I'll record this one as CCI 05.0655'

45 BC Addedomaros Celtic gold full stater found by Ark Gary

'Well, this is a nice one, and as you say with those intriguing symbols above the horse visible. What they seem to be is three horse's muzzles - on some dies they are virtually identical to the muzzle actually on the horse. Curiously, at roughly the same time that Addedomaros was using this motif on his staters, so was Commios, down in Hampshire. In fact since Commios is generally dated a little earlier than Addedomaros, it's not impossible that the latter encountered one of Commios's staters and decided to copy this feature. It quite often appears blundered, which suggests that the die engravers didn't always know what they were looking at. I'll record this one as CCI 05.0603, and I look forward to more!

'This is an AR Siliqua of Honorius (393-423 A.D.) minted at Mediolanum, or Milan, as we know it today, in the first few months of his reign in 393 - when he was 9 years old. RIC IX, 26, RSC 63.' 0.94g,16.71mm

4thC Valens - 364-378 A.D Roman bronze with the info supplied by Mark at the URF

'That is the emperor Valens - 364-378 A.D. Obverse inscription DN VALENS PF AVG diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. The SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE AE3's of him and his brother are very, very common. His brother Valentinian I who pre-deceased him in 375 due to not waiting four hours for brother Valens to arrive, hoping to claim the "glory" for his imagined "victory" at Hadrianople for himself, is one of the classic hubris stories of the later Empire. Valentinian and hiis legions were ridded down by the Gothic cavalry employing their new invention - the stirrip - and anihilated. One of the greatest disasters to befall the Empire at this time I can't make out the mintmark on the reverse - perhaps some cleaning would reveal sufficient tops of letters in the exergue to tell you what mint produced this piece.

The Victory reverse is interesting in that it appears at the time the iconography was shifting from the Classical deity Victory to the Christian angel symbology - but at this time is still to be interpreted as Victory advancing left carrying wreath and palm.'

4thC Roman bronze - Comments from Mark Lehman

'That's an easy one - up to a point. It's Constantius II, (377-361 A.D.) DN CONSTANTIVS PF AVG. Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. The reverse type is FEL TEMP REPARATIO - roughly translated as "Happy days are here again". The reverse shows a soldier advancing left, spearing a fallen horseman. As inappropriate as this juxtaposition of legend and scene might seem, the thought that foot-soldiers could unhorse and kill "barbarian" cavalry was comforting enough to those for whom this propaganda type was issued.
This series was current from about 250-260 A.D. and these "AE3's" (medium sized bronzes, 17-22mm) are among the very most common Roman coins known - however, they're not so common in Britain, I suppose, since Roman involvement in Britain was about done-for by that time. Unfortunately there isn't enough visible in the exergue (space below the "ground line") on the reverse to be able to tell the mint from which this specimen comes, although it looks like it might become visible with careful cleaning'.

GLORIA EXERCITVS - 2 soldiers standing, facing, holding spears in outside hands and leaning inside hands on shields, flanking a single legionary standard with a chi-rho Christogram on it
As you probably noticed, there is almost no legend on the obverse. All that ever made it onto this undersized flan is the "...B C" at 4:00 or so - and it's too bad, too, because the detail of the coin is so good and crisp otherwise - but the legend never made it onto this coin in the first place - the flan was too small for the dies. The "...B C" indicates that it was struck for someone before they had become emperor. Unfortunately, there are 4 suspects and we will never be able to be completely sure which it is. Three of Constantine the Great's sons:
Constantine II
Constans &
Constantius II,
also:
Delmatius - a cousin - but Delmatius is pretty rare, and it's fairly unlikely that's who it is.
All four used this reverse in the 335-337 A.D. time-frame.
My best guess is that it's Constans because his shorter name could account for the seemingly broad spacing of the couple of extant letters.

FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C
CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C
FL IVL DELMATIVS NOB C
FL CONSTANS NOB C

are the most common forms of their names for this series. Also, unfortunately, the exergue similarly failed to make it onto the coin, so I can't tell you at which of the myriad of operating mints it was struck, either.

Info supplied by Mark Lehman

Early Roman silver coin in rough shape sent off to Mark at the URF for a best guess 1.96g, 15.61mm

'That's a "Legionary Denarius " of Marc Antony.
32-31 B.C. is when it was minted, but these, being of baser silver than the denarii of the early empire (and finer silver than the denarii of the 3rd century), seemed to stay in circulation for a very long time, first because they weren't worth turning in at a discount, and later because they were too valuable to turn in. They circulated widely in the Provinces, and in fact, are found in hoards up to 300 years later than their mintage-date. You can see this one is quite worn, so it probably had been around for a long time before it was lost. The obverse has a galley sailing (rowing) right (your photo is 90 degrees off to clockwise) and the legend: ANT AVG III VIR R P C. The reverse shows a legionary eagle (Aquila) between two legionary standards and names the legion between them as: | LEG | XI | which I believe, but am not sure this is. They're known for legions I through XXX (with a few missing). XI is a common legion, some are scarce, some rare'.

'It's almost certainly 3rd century by the radiate crown on the obverse - it looks nothing like a 4th century "post-reform radiate". I'm not making out any legends or the reverse type on that one, either. What is the diameter in mm? I'd say, depending on diameter, that it's either an official antoninianus from the darkest hour of the Empire - Gallienus-Claudius Gothicus - 260-270 A.D. or a contemporary (so-called "barbarous radiate", although I dislike that term - the folks who made and used them were no more barbarians than the Italians) imitative radiate'

Info form Mark at the URF.

'many thanks for these. The Gallo-Belgic 'boat tree' quarter will be CCI 06.0187, and the Clacton quarter 06.0188.

The G-B quarter is a lovely coin, looks very sharp. There is a distinctive class of these which have all the little crosses around the 'boat' - they're not uncommon, but not always as nice as this.

The Clacton quarter is one of those where the wear on the obverse makes it look as though there's a face - a