WORCESTERSHIRE NERO-ERA ROMAN HOARD

 

A hoard of 1,368 coins, most of them silver, has been discovered in a pot by a metal detectorist in Worcestershire, a county in England.

The hoard was buried around A.D. 55, a time when the Roman Empire, led by emperor Nero (reign circa A.D. 54 to 68), was struggling to take control of England. His predecessor Claudius (reign A.D. 41 to 54) had invaded Britain and gained control of large amounts of England, but resistance continued into Nero's reign. In A.D. 60, a rebellion launched by Boudica, the queen of a British tribe known as the Iceni, nearly succeeded in driving the Romans from the island before the empire put the rebellion down.

While the coins were buried during Nero's reign, some of them were minted earlier. All but one of the coins in the hoard are silver denarii, a standard Roman coin, that were minted between 157 B.C. and A.D. 55, according to a statement from Museums Worcestershire. The one gold coin in the hoard was minted between A.D. 20 and 45 for a tribe called the Dobunni who were based in Worcestershire and nearby areas, the statement reported.

"The coins almost certainly entered the region by means of the Roman army," the statement noted. "Their sheer number means that the hoard would have represented a very considerable sum of cash at the time it was buried."

At the time the hoard was buried, Worcestershire was located on the frontier of the Roman Empire, according to the statement. This raises a question of whether battles or conflicts in the area might have prompted its owner to hide it.

To read the complete article, see:
More than 1,300 coins buried during Roman emperor Nero's reign found in England (https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/more-than-1-300-coins-buried-buried-during-roman-emperor-neros-reign-found-in-england)

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