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The Coleraine Hoard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Harold Mattingly ,
J. W. E. Pearce  and
T. D. Kendrick
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Extract

Early in 1854, in the townland of Ballinrees, about three and a half miles west of Coleraine, county Londonderry, Ireland, a labouring man unearthed from a considerable depth in peaty soil one of the most remarkable hoards of Roman silver ever found in our isles. Though no trace remained of any urn or other container, it was apparent, both from the depth of the deposit and from the closeness with which the whole was packed together, that it was indeed a hoard, no mere chance series of deposits.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 41 , March 1937 , pp. 39 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1937 

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References

1 From the circumstances of finding it appears possible that the coin hoard may be less uniform than some others and may represent the amalgamation of a number of smaller hoards carried off as loot.

2 Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1854, pp. 182 ffGoogle Scholar ( Porter, J. Scott : note on the coins by Carruthers, James) : republished in Num. Chron. 1854–1856, 17, 101 ff with some minor alterations, which cannot now be checked.Google Scholar The hoard was discussed by Haver-field in English Historical Review, 1923, 28, pp. 1 ffGoogle Scholar (‘Ancient Rome and Ireland’), by Curie in The Treasure of Traprain, 1923, who there has collected the evidence for silver hoards of a similar character, and by Ridgeway in Journal of Roman Studies, 1924, pp. 123 ff (Niall ‘of the Nine Hostages’, etc.)

3 The coins are described in the works just quoted as ‘denarii’. We now call them by the agreed name of ‘siliquae’, which is probably correct (Mickwitz’s view that the coin was really a ‘half–siliqua’ seems very difficult to accept). Some of the smaller pieces were described as ‘quinarii’ or, as we should say, ‘half–siliquae’. There is apparently only one example of the real half–piece, a ‘Victoria Augg.’, of Arcadius : the rest were simply badly chipped pieces. The number of coins of Julian II is given in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology as 68, in the Numismatic Chronicle as 75 ; no number is given for Constantine in in the former.

4 The number is given in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology as 684 ; 557 clipped, 127 partially clipped.

5 This statement is based on a careful examination by Mr Pearce of the 83 Coleraine coins, which were kept by the British Museum. The Ulster Journal of Archaeology gives the number of clipped coins as 657, of partially clipped as 199. Even if the clipping did not extend further, the hoard is classed at once as one of the few that show the practice of clipping far advanced.

6 1933. pp. I70 ff.

7 If Icklingham III hoard is really part of the same as I the figures for Milan will be Theodosius 1, 2, Arcadius 63, Honorius 90.

8 As did Ridgeway in J.R.S., 1924, pp. 123 ff. Niall, according to tradition, died in 405 and is really too early to come into consideration.

9 Cp. especially the Terling hoard, quoted above, and the South Ferriby hoard (Num. Chron. 1935, pp. 254ff). Ridgeway’s argument in the paper, quoted above in n. 8, rested partly on the supposed Continental origin of the hoard.

10 Perhaps it is wiser not to make the assertion quite as confidently as does Mr Scott Porter in his original publication (Ulster Journal of Archaeology, p. 185).

11 Cp. also SirEvans, Arthur in Num. Chron. 1915, pp. 488 ff.Google Scholar

12 The silver, however, was only between 1 and 2 per cent, baser than that of bars found in Hanover that were certainly official.

13 Elmer, G. in Numismatičar, Belgrade, 1935, p. 19 : the find–spot is not certain.Google Scholar