Hoard of 30,000 silver Roman coins discovered in Bath
One of the largest hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain has been uncovered during an archaeological dig in Bath, experts have said.
By Andrew Hough
8:30PM GMT 22 Mar 2012
More than 30,000 silver coins have been found by archaeologists working at the site of a new city-centre hotel. The hoard, believed to date from the third-century, was unearthed about 450 feet from the historic Roman Baths.
Experts believe the “treasure trove” is the fifth largest hoard ever discovered in Britain and the largest from a Roman settlement. The coins, which have now been sent to the British Museum for further analysis, are fused together in a large block. This makes identification and counting difficult and conservators at central London Museum expect the task of analysing the coins to take up to 12 months. The Roman Baths has launched an appeal to raise about £150,000 to acquire, conserve and display the coins, believed to date from about 270AD.
The dig, known as the “Beau Street Hoard”, began in 2008 at the site of work on the Gainsborough Hotel in Beau Street. On Thursday night, Stephen Clews, manager of the Roman Baths and Pump Room, said the find had been declared a “treasure trove”.
"We've put in a request for a formal valuation and then hope to buy the coins to display them at the baths,” he told the BBC. "At the time there was a lot of unrest in the Roman Empire so there may be some explanation for why the coins were hidden away.
"The find is also unusual as it was discovered by professional archaeologists as opposed to an amateur using a metal detector.”
The largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed in a single container was found in April 2010 by Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, with the help of a metal detector at the edge of a field near a Roman road near Frome, in Somerset. The stash of 52,503 coins, known as the "Frome hoard" and dating between 253AD and 293AD, was valued at £320,250. The haul is now at the Museum of Somerset thanks to a grant of almost £300,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
"We've put in a request for a formal valuation and then hope to buy the coins to display them at the baths,” he told the BBC. "At the time there was a lot of unrest in the Roman Empire so there may be some explanation for why the coins were hidden away.
"The find is also unusual as it was discovered by professional archaeologists as opposed to an amateur using a metal detector.”
The largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed in a single container was found in April 2010 by Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, with the help of a metal detector at the edge of a field near a Roman road near Frome, in Somerset. The stash of 52,503 coins, known as the "Frome hoard" and dating between 253AD and 293AD, was valued at £320,250. The haul is now at the Museum of Somerset thanks to a grant of almost £300,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
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