Next club meeting Monday 4th June 2007

The AGM is the meeting where the officer's report the status of the club and the membership voice their concerns/ideas. It is also the time where the club committee is elected for the forthcoming year.

The second part of the evening will be devoted to the annual display competition, with the winner being awarded the Michael Broome Memorial Trophy for 1 year. The competition is open to all members and can cover any topic connected to numismatics. So to all members please have a go and enter a display. Those that do a display will receive an entry into a raffle, the prize being a bottle of wine.

May Meeting

This was a talk from Edward Besley entitled News from the Romano-British Empire.

In AD 287-287 Carausius commander of the Roman Atlantic fleet fell out with the Emperors of Rome and set himself up as ruler of Britain (and parts of Gaul) proclaiming himself co-emperor. He was murdered in AD 293 and succeeded by his first minister Allectus who ruled Britain pretty well. A hoard was found at Rogiet (just off the M4) which gave a lot of information.

In the 2nd century AD there were approximately five emperors in the 3rd century there were forty-eight - mostly military commanders - and only four died of natural causes. It was a period of great instability and inflation - large hoards of base metal coins from this period have been found. Base coins with a small amount of silver - like a silver wash - are the normal type.

Carausius used his coins for propaganda purposes (as did all the emperors) he had himself represented as a consul (in consul regalia) also as restorer of the empire. The RSR which used to be considered a mintmark is now thought to stand for 'Return of the Saturnian Kingdom' a line from Virgil ie. Return of a Golden Age also Expectati Veni (come the expected one). Another denarius shows Diana on the reverse - a conflation of two earlier designs which doubtless had significance at the time.

Both Carausius and Allectus issued gold coins of which 12 types are known from London (and 9 from Rogiet) probably represented quite a large output. One had a letter 'D' in the field which may be a control mark or may be a mark of value (D=500 possibly 500 radiate coins) Edward favours this theory.

Rogiet is near to Caerleon and Caerwent - both important centres. The Rogiet hoard comprises 2,800+ coins and amazingly had a large number of good quality radiates, whereas most hoards of this period contain large numbers of later very base and cruder coins.

Edward showed slides of some very nice coins from the hoard - many with representations of Sol. One of Nigrinian - very rare - son of Carinus another of Magna Urbia (wife of Carausius) also coins of Diocletian and Maximian who were the official Emperors in Rome.

The latest Carausian coins in the hoard date from circa 293 about two dozen - very interesting - include coins in the name of Diocletian and Maximian - struck by Carausius at two mints 'L' (clearly London) the other 'C' whose location is still uncertain but may be Corinium (Cirencester), the distribution of the finds does not help. It also contains one coin of Carausius and his brothers - three cojoined portraits of Diocletian, Maximianus and Carausius, very rare and nice to find in the hoard.There were many coins of Allectus with a galley reverse - very unusual to find large numbers of this coin in a hoard. The last large hoard was in the early 1800's. Rogiet contained approximately 700 - very unusual and from both mints (L and C) these are thought to be half of the larger coins (Q is thought to indicate Quinarius or equals half a denarius) and weigh 3 gms where full size radiates weigh 4 1/2 gm.

Edward has identified four different basic groups of which he showed slides and two main reverse inscriptions laetitia or virtus. Edward has tried to classify obverses and reverses into different groups and even tried to formulate a chronology - he thinks Laetitia came before Virtus differentiates between types of boats and different busts (variations in arrangement of armour and tie to radiate crown. Also sometimes victory in ship and raven on top of mast - also many different arrangements of the oars. Out of 300 coins approximately 170 different dies - indicating that there may have been as many as 350 different dies.

Thank you to Edward for a very interesting talk.

Skittles Evening

A very successful skittles evening was held in Theale, with 20 members and guests attending. Gaye Pottinger was on hand to award the prizes in this year’s competition which had been donated by David Pottinger before his recent death. The first game is traditionally ‘boys against girls’ and was won by the boys by 194 to 157. The top scoring boy was Henry and the top scoring girl was Lucy. In the next game (‘killer’) Jean Beamish ran out clear winner and in the final game (an ‘Irish’ version of ‘killer’) Lucy was again successful. Thanks to everyone for attending and good luck for next year.

Summer Social

We are in the process of fixing the Summer Social for this year. Possibilities include a trip, (possibly revisiting the British Museum or The Fitzwilliam Museum) or a social ‘Garden Party’ event. Whatever the outcome the event will take place sometime in August.

Summer Social

Future Events.

Past Events