UK hoard of Roman silver coins discovered

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A close-up of a silver denarii showing a profile of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is wearing laurel leaves, and has a beard. The coin shows some signs of green around his beard.
Four of the coins date to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, with the earliest dating from AD166 (above)

Reported by Katy Prickett

BBC News, Norfolk

  • Published on 1st March 2025

A hoard of 16 silver Roman coins spanning two centuries has been discovered in a field by a metal detectorist.

The denarii date from the late Roman Republic to the reign of Marcus Aurelius and his wife Faustina, and were found at Barton Bendish, Norfolk.

Coin specialist Adrian Marsden said the loss might have been the equivalent of “a few hundred quid” to its owner.

The hoard is the subject of a treasure inquest and King’s Lynn Museum is hoping to acquire it.

The front showing the empress Faustina. She is in profile, with hair pulled into a bun at her neck. The coin shows signs of greening. It dates to AD161-75.
Empress Faustina accompanied her husband Marcus Aurelius on campaigns and after her death he ordered she should be deified

“There’s 200 years’ worth of coins in the hoard, which is what you get with a stable currency,” Dr Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, said.

“It’s similar to the 1960s when you’d still get Victorian pennies in your change, although they were practically worn smooth.”

The earliest coin in the hoard dates from 57BC and is also the most worn.

It was made in the Roman Republic which lasted from 509BC, when a monarch was replaced by elected magistrates, until AD27, when the empire began.

The front and back of two silver Roman coins. The one on the top is the oldest and has been worn almost smooth. A man's face wearing laurel leaves in profile can be seen, while facing it its back is so smooth the pattern lacks definition. The one below shows the emperor Hadrian in profile. Facing it is the reverse showing the god Mars, wearing a helmet and holding a spear.
The earliest coin shows Caius Serveilius (top row), while the lower denarii shows the emperor Hadrian, who ordered the building of the wall in northern Britain

The rest of the coins show six emperors and two of their wives, with the most recent denarii dating to AD175-6.

Dr Marsden said it was impossible to know if the coins were a purse loss or had been deliberately hidden “which is simply what you do when you haven’t got banks”.

“We do know that this part of Norfolk, the area on the fen edge around King’s Lynn, was a very prosperous part of Britain – there was a line of villas here and you’ve got [the county’s longest Roman road] the Peddars Way, because the soil is very fertile and it’s prime agricultural land,” he said.

“While it’s always very difficult to tie in coins with prices today, because the structure of society was so very different, the loss was probably worth the equivalent of a few hundred quid to its owner.”

The front and back of a silver Roman coins. Emperor Vespasian, in profile and facing him is the back of the coin showing the seated goddess Pax. It dates to AD70 to 2.
Emperor Vespasian (AD69 to 79) was the last of the emperors in the “year of four emperors ” and went on to found a new dynasty

Roman Norfolk

Norfolk was an important part of Roman Britain, with many large villas that acted as the hubs of farming estates, Marsden said. One of Britain’s longest Roman roads passed through the region; and the west of Norfolk, in particular, was considered prime land for farming because the soil there was fertile.

The Roman coin hoard may have been buried at the time for safekeeping, which was a common practice in an era when there were no banks. It’s also possible that a person lost a purse that held the coins: “This would work for something this size,” Marsden said.

Two of the newfound silver coins portray the wives of the Roman emperors, including Faustina I, the wife of Antoninus Pius, and Faustina II, the wife of Marcus Aurelius.

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