mud, mud, glorious mud

[handyman [Alan}]

Nope, not the DW rally today, but the 3 counties rally yesterday.

A few finds graced my bag, but i must admit, i had the best nights sleep in ages!

enjoy

[Da Monkey]

Nice is that a pierced Roman there ?

[handyman [Alan}]

yep,  it was my first signal of the day,

50 people must have walked over it,  in their rush  for the distant hill!

[Da Monkey]

Nice   Low and slow wins the day...

[Dryland]

well done on the finds Alan

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

I found a pierced Sestertius in a Mick Tyrell rally. According to pas piercing of Roman coins was a Saxon thing.

[handyman [Alan}]

thanks, 2 romans resulted. The one on the right i think is an early one.

[handyman [Alan}]

I found a pierced Sestertius in a Mick Tyrell rally. According to pas piercing of Roman coins was a Saxon thing.

Interesting fact that Rob. I was told the same thing yesterday.  Have got to find some time next week to research it properly.

[congerman]

nice finds well searched 

[glynkid]

yep I bet it eas mddy but some nice finds

[handyman [Alan}]

And if you do have any pierced coinage in your own collections, i suggest you read this link

http://finds.org.uk/treasure/advice/piercedcoins

[probono]

The pierced roman is of the emperor Carus 282-284ad. That to me is more unusual than the piercing, as there isn't so much official coinage in the country at the time. Whilst coin piercing is often for jewellery , it isn't just the Saxons who did it, and I would expect the bulk of Saxon piercings to be from later coinage than this one.

I think the other roman looks like Antoninus Pius.

[handyman [Alan}]

Thank you probono for that insight. It is much appreciated. As you can see, the Antoninus Pius is very worn and in poor condition, i did have a suspicion it may be him, but i was leaving it to the FLO to call it.

The Carus coin was found 20 yards away! It will be interesting to see what they say about it. Will let you know, in a couple of months time.

[Chef Geoff]

Some nice Finds Al I've found two pierced Roman coins which both got the Saxon antenna going but as Probono has said they are equally likely to be Roman as they have been found in both context.
The ages of pierced Roman coins seem to come from all Reece periods and in the Saxon context are probably a result of agricultural finds.
As to it's rarity in Britain as a coin, if Saxon then you have to look at the coin in it's cultural context, the "Early Medieval" especially the early and middle Saxon were times of migration and cultural "blending" when settlers, warriors and traders from the Netherlands were probably quite free to enter Britain by the East coast bringing their belongings with them, so there is nothing to say that the coin, as a coin, has any connection with Britain.

[handyman [Alan}]

Thanks Geoff for that information. As per usual, food for thought.

thats the beauty of this hobby, a simple comment re a piercing in a coin, now leads to a much bigger and wider consideration of its role, purpose, culture at the time [and later], etc.

I know we will never actually know when the piecing was made, but the research into such coinage over time is going to whet my appetite over the coming months.

if anyone else wants to add their comments, or links to interesting web pages on this topic, feel free  to do so.

thanks ever so much