A Guide to Coinage at Vindolanda |
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The contemporary levels where these coins can be found are Periods I through VI-B (and some early Period VII levels). Gold at Vindolanda is very rare. Denarii are common, as are high-value copper coins (sestertius, dupondius, and as). Denarii are 18-20mm large, and can come up with purplish-grey corrosion from higher levels, or almost pristine from deeper, sealed layers. A sestertius will be over 30mm large, while a dupondius/as will be about 23-26mm. Copper & brass from higher levels can be badly corroded, but in deep deposits can come out almost pristine, or with beautiful verdigris. |
By the beginning of the 3rd C. Emperors were churning out ever larger quantities of denarii (the coin of choice for the army) to support the troops, and they simply didn't have the silver for it. So the silver content of new coins plummeted dramatically year by year. This in turn led to massive inflation, as everyone knew that a new "denarius" wasn't worth anything like its older counterparts. This downward spiral eventually pushed the old small brass & copper coins out of existence. (It simply wasn't convenient to have to walk around with literally hundreds of the heavy copper coins just to buy bread.) The old Augustan system needed a revamp.
In AD215 the emperor Caracalla created a new coin, known now as the "antoninianus." It seems to have been meant as a double-denarius. (The image of the Emperor on the front of this coin had a "radiate" crown-like figure on his head, as opposed to the usual laurel wreath. The same effect had been used on the dupondius to show it as a "double-as.") After a couple false starts, this became the coin of choice for payment to armies of the 3rd Century. Fractional copper & brass coinage production ceased. Later, denarii & sestertii also disappeared one after another, until by the 260s antoninianii were about the only thing being minted anymore. For our purposes, 3rd Century coinage can be broken down (again, -very- roughly) as follows:
The contemporary level where these coins can be found is Period VII. Gold at Vindolanda is very rare. Antoninianii are common (as are counterfeits and barbarian copies!). Denarii and sestertii of this period can be found. Antoninianii & contemporary denarii are 18-20mm large, and can vary from passable/fair quality (early 3rd C) to silver-washed base metal (later 3rd C). High-quality specimens can come up with purplish-grey corrosion from higher levels, or almost pristine from deeper, sealed layers. Most will be baser specimens, either black & corroded or sometimes with a nice toning/verdigris. A sestertius will be over 30mm large, and can be badly corroded, but in deep deposits can come out almost pristine, or with beautiful verdigris. |
Finally, by the early 270s, a long string of civil wars led to the last, utter collapse of the Augustan system. Inflation had outstripped the best efforts of successive Emperors (legitimate & otherwise). Desperate to keep up, the Empire flooded the market with literally millions of junk-metal "antoninianii," with disastrous results. Trust evaporated, the bottom fell out, and the cash economy largely collapsed. Trade reverted to a barter economyThere was also a brisk trade in very old & worn, but higher-quality, silver coinage. The exchange rate for these coins isn't known. It's likely that they were exchanged on an ad hoc basis, agreed between vendor & buyer. for much of the next generation, although Aurelian and later Diocletian both made major efforts at currency reform. It took Constantine in the early 4th Century to stabilize a new system of coinage. He reintroduced a new gold standardThis standard, based on very high-grade gold at a rate of 72 coins to the Roman pound, was ferociously guarded from here on. It actually survived in various later kingdoms/empires until at least the 11th Century., restored silver to the system, and returned money to the forefront. However, the late 3rd C crisis had uncoupled gold and silver from each other. Their relative values now fluctuated year by year, and would until the end of Roman Britain. This and other 4th Century crises led to a wildly confusing & competing set of silver, silver-alloy, and bronze coinages. In the end, dozens of different coin series with dozens of different sizes & weights floated on the market at the same time. That said, a few major series of the 4th Century economy looked broadly as followsAs a quick note, nearly all 4th C coinage shows the Emperor with an Eastern-style diadem on his head. The old laureates & radiates are gone. If your coin has a diadem, it's 4th C.:
The contemporary levels relating to this coinage are Periods VIII-IX. (As of yet there is no confirmed 5th C/Period X coinage known from Vindolanda.) Gold at Vindolanda is very rare. Silver & silver-alloy is also increasingly rare in later levels. 4th Century coinage at Vindolanda tends to be copper, leaded bronze, and occasionally silvered bronze specimens. The volume of 4th C coinage on-site is quite high. Most pieces are tiny, and had such low intrinsic value that it simply wasn't worth the owner's time to try to find it if one dropped. |
An important note: As mentioned above, the wild fluctuation in size and quality of coinage over the centuries meant that many transactions were done on an ad-hoc basis. Old coins of higher quality could carry a premium, and were very sought-after. It is quite common on-site to find coinage that had been circulating for as much as 200 years! (Usually any such coin is a high-grade denarius of the mid-2nd C or earlier.) Plus, all the rebuilding activity at Vindolanda meant the ground was often churned up and relaid. Old, lost coins could be deposited as spoil in new contexts. So just because you're digging in a later level doesn't mean your potential coinage finds are limited to its date range. Unfortunately this all has negative effects on how useful a single coin can be in determining the time-frame of a particular trench.
So how does this knowledge help an excavator? First, individual coins may be good dating devices. For example, a coin from AD251 found under a flagged floor means that the floor cannot have been laid before AD251! Second, the presence or absence of coins from an area can give a big clue to the use of that area. For example, the western gate of the visible fort has been heavily excavated. No coin later than the mid-350s has been found. Since later coins can be found spread out all over the rest of the fort, this is a clue that this gate may have been blocked up & taken out of use by the late 4th C. Third, a large enough spread of coins over time can help an archaeologist learn whether a site had a typical or atypical economy for the period, compared to other sites. Taken together, this all has huge implications for understanding the site & its relation to the larger world. Every coin that you can retrieve from the soil is one more piece of the puzzle. So keep your eye out as you're digging!
As one last note, when you're digging, please never try to clean a very grotty coin beyond a simple soaking with water. It's tempting to try to find out what it is, but it's all too easy to damage a weakened coin's surface beyond recovery. Don't risk destroying information -- leave coin cleaning to the conservation team. You can always note the context you found it in, and follow up later to learn what it was.
References:
Vindolanda Excavations Reports: 1994, 2001-'02, 2003-'04, 2005-'06
Casey, P.J. Roman Coinage in Britain. Shire Archaeology, 1994.
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/
http://www.kenelks.co.uk/coins/roman/roman.htm
Page created by Harold Johnson
 3:48 AM May 18
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