April 22nd. 2015.      

Next club meeting Monday 11th May 2015.

·         Propaganda & Inflation from the Old Curiosity Shop By Derek Aldred.

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

 

Notices:

  • The June meeting is the AGM  where the Committee officers report the status of the club and  initiatives for the future. It is also where the membership voice their opinions, concerns and ideas for the future. The committee welcomes/needs direction from the membership, please start thinking about it now.
  • The committee also needs members. Please consider joining, it is not fair to leave the running of the club to the same small number of members every year. If you are willing to become a member of the committee please notify one of the current committee, namely Mick, Peter, John or Henry
  • Remember the AGM is when the Annual Display Competition for the Michael Broome Memorial Cup is held. Please try and bring an entry along this year.

 

April Meeting

The April talk entitled Counterfeiting in Roman Britain and was given by Hugh Williams. Hugh specialises in Roman coins and, particularly, the Carausian period (AD 286-296). Counterfeiting has a long history, dating back to the C6 BC, contemporary with the earliest coinage, and continuing to this day. The three main reasons are: (i) creating a coin for less than face value; (ii) acute shortage of official coinage in circulation, and (iii) non-monetary uses, such as tokens for religious donations. For the first two, intended to deceive, they had to look genuine and two methods were used: (a) with counterfeit dies producing a coin in cheap metal, or struck on silver-plated blanks (fourrée), and (b) by casting from genuine coins. Three major ‘epidemics’ were described.

 

In Britain during the Roman period (AD43-410) both these methods were used, and others besides, such as engraving new dies with imaginative and acceptable designs. At the time of the invasion there were a number of old, low-silver and fourrée denarii in circulation. Better coins often being hoarded, but importantly, there was an acute shortage of small change, especially copper asses, for use by the newly monetised economy. Within the empire in AD43 there was already a shortage and two strategies dealt with this (a) widespread copying of Claudian asses and the recirculation (after countermarking) of worn/ underweight bronze/ copper coins. The wear indicates widespread circulation.

 

Claudius As new AD42

Claudius As copy

Claudius As copy !!!

Countermarked Claudius Sestertius back in circ.

 

The silver coinage was debased over the next two hundred years and this accelerated because of military spending in the late C2nd and early C3rd. The impact on the denarius (the mainstay coin) was marked. Copper, etc was added bring the silver content down to 50% and below, the volume of fourrée coins was increased, and a new coin was issued in AD214 (the antoninianus) which purported to be a ‘double-denarius’ but with less silver than two denarii. Inflation was rampant, especially as the military salaries were increased significantly with no new sources of silver to pay for them.

 

Sept. Severus Den AD196

Caracalla fourrée AD201

Caracalla copper core AD204

Caracalla Antonianus  AD216

 

The third epidemic was the enormous issue of ‘barbarous radiates’. Generally dismissed by traditional numismatists, the series offers challenges. Seen as a Britain/ Gaul phenomena, these coins are exceptionally common in hoards and individual finds in the period between, approximately AD260 to 272, and again between AD286 and 290, particularly for emperors Claudius II, Victorinus and Tetricus I & II, and Carausius. The argument has been that they were produced for local circulation but die-link studies have shown connections across the northern empire.

 

Victorinus AD270s

Tetricus I AD270s

Claudius II AD270s

Carausius AD 290

 

Clearly, the style and content of the coins were not designed to impress but they fulfilled a need.

 

Hugh explained that there were other major outbreaks of counterfeiting, for example, at the time of Magnentius’ revolt (AD250-253) and copies/ copying continued until the Roman administration departed in the early C5th.

 

The Club thanked Hugh for a lucid account of the motivation and practice of counterfeiting during the Roman occupation.

 

Future Events

  • Bloomsbury Coin Fair – Bloomsbury Hotel, London 2nd May
  • Baldwin Auctions –  Strand, London, 5th - 6th May
  • Midland Coin Fair – National Motorcycle Museum 10th May
  • St. James Auctions – Cavendish Hotel, London 19th May

 

Past Events

  • 40 years ago the guest speaker was Dr. C Kraay who spoke on the “Greek Coinage of Sicily”
  • 30 years ago Mr. G. Berry gave a talk entitled “Computing Through the Ages - Reckoning Counters/Boards and How to Use Them”
  • 20 years ago we had a members evening.
  • 10 years ago Mr P Preston-Morley gave a talk on the Gold “Coins of the USA”
               

Club Secretary.