The recent excavations at the Shippams site recovered two hoards of Roman coins. Coins were mainly hoarded in the Roman period because there were few other opportunities (like banks) to keep wealth safe. Hiding your money was the best way to keep it safe!

Hoard 1 comprised 450 coins. They were not recovered in a group but were scattered over a small area. This shows that the hoard had originally been deposited in a cloth or leather bag/purse, which had rotted away. The coins had then been disturbed in antiquity (perhaps during some earth moving operation like pit digging) and the coins were scattered here and there. Presumably the coins were valueless by the time they were disturbed as no one bothered to pick them up. The coins are very poorly preserved and were mainly so-called 'barbarous radiates', low-value copper-alloy coins minted locally between about AD270-290. They probably served as 'small change' or 'trade tokens' during a period when the Roman mints on the continent were failing to supply Britain with low-value denominations in any quantity. One aspect of barbarous radiates that can be startling to modern eyes is their small size. Although most were between 8 and 13mm in diameter some were as small as 5mm, a far cry from first- and second-century Roman coins which could be 20-25mm across (Figure 1). We are very grateful to the volunteer metal-detectorists who helped us find these little coins.

Figure 1

Hoard 2 is currently undergoing conservation and analysis, so this is only a preliminary statement. It was found as a corroded 'lump' and had probably been hidden in a bag or box, which has rotted away. Some traces of fibres were preserved and we hope that they might tell us more about the container that held the hoard. We estimate that 500-1000 coins were present and they too probably date to between AD270-290. Once the hoard has been studied and conserved we hope that it will eventually go on display locally.


Hoard 2 being excavated	and under examination

If these hoards were people's savings, the piggy banks of their day, then why weren't they recovered by their owners? This is a question that archaeology is poorly equipped to answer. Traditionally late third-century hoards were associated with political instability and barbarian raids. Historical sources tell us that the 'Saxons' were raiding the Gallic and British coasts in the third century and the Roman army certainly started to defend the south coast, the so-called Saxon Shore, with impressive fortifications like Portchester Castle about this time. We might like to think that the owners of these hoards fell foul to raiding barbarians and could not recover their wealth. However, most archaeologists now favour a more prosaic explanation. Barbarous radiates were very low-value coins, and were unofficial local coins too. When the currency system was stabilised at the end of the third century and the central mints began to supply Britain with good quality coin again these barbarous radiates probably became valueless, not worth their monetary value any more and not worth the scrap value of the metal. Thus people just left them in the ground to be recovered 1700 years later.

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