A Roman Coin Hoard from Snodland
At about 11am on Tuesday 26th September last year, a quiet day in the office at Kent County Council was interrupted by a phone call from Geo-Environmental Limited who had just made an interesting discovery in Snodland. A team from the company were mechanically excavating trenches as part of a geo-technical survey on a piece of land earmarked for a housing development. The process involved digging 2m deep trenches, filling them with water and timing how long it took the water to drain away. In the second of four trenches the team had, however, made a significant discovery. As the JCB bucket was lifted out of the trench there was “a sound like breaking glass” and hundreds of small green discs appeared.
Poured out of the bucket. On examination these proved to be Roman copper alloy coins. Many fragments of pottery and tile were also present, and more coins could be seen in the partially excavated trench. Realising the potential significance of the find, the team leader, Matt Bulmer, telephoned Kent County Council’s Heritage Conservation team and asked for assistance.
In response to the phone call, Wendy Rogers, the Archaeological Officer responsible for the Snodland area, and Andrew Richardson, the Finds Liaison Officer for Kent, were able to get to the site at short notice, accompanied by Laura McLean from Maidstone Museum and Nigel Betts from the Mid-Kent Metal Detecting Club. With assistance from two local volunteers they commenced a careful search of the spoil heap and the area around the trench to recover any disturbed coins and associated finds. Meanwhile the Geo-Environmental team excavated two further trenches which were observed by Andrew Richardson. The second of these produced amounts of Roman brick and tile.
Laura McLean led the cleaning up and excavation of the trench that had produced the coins and by the afternoon had located the lower half of a grey pottery vessel in situ. This contained a large quantity of coins, clearly the undisturbed portion of the coin hoard and vessel that had been truncated by the JCB bucket. Due to security considerations, the decision was taken to plan and lift the hoard and pottery vessel immediately, and this task was completed by late afternoon.
The following day Andrew and Laura returned along with metal detectorist Gill Davies and archaeologist Tay Keen to complete the excavation and planning of the hoard’s context. It became apparent that the vessel containing the hoard had been placed between some upright tiles in a small pit. The pit cut through the upper fill of a large ditch. This fill was largely comprised of stiff orange brickearth derived from the adjacent topsoil. There were large quantities of Roman brick and tile in this deposit; it is not clear whether the upright tiles surrounding the hoard had been deliberately placed as such, or whether the pit dug to contain the hoard had simply revealed them. The upper ditch fill sealed a soft brown sandy lower fill that contained large quantities of Roman pottery. The sloping edge of one side of the ditch was located, indicating that it ran from south-east to north-west, but there was not sufficient time to locate the base or other side of the ditch. Clearly, however, Roman activity on the site predated the deposition of the coin hoard.
The coin hoard itself was found to comprise almost 3600 copper alloy coins which had been contained in a narrow-necked pottery vessel. A preliminary examination suggests that all the coins were minted between the years 330-348 AD. The types present include Gloria Exercitus, Urbs Roma and Constantinianus types, with the latest examples appearing to be the ‘Twin Victories’ issue minted in 347-348 AD. The year 348 saw a major currency reform, with previous issues being demonetized, and it seems likely that this was the reason for the deposition of the hoard. Interestingly, there seem to be no contemporary forgeries in the hoard; all the coins appear to be official issues. This, combined with the apparent lack of coins earlier than 330 AD, suggests that the hoard, rather than representing someone’s loose change collection, is derived from an official source, such as a pay chest. If this is the case, it seems surprising that it could not be exchanged for new coinage as part of the currency reform. Perhaps its owner did not have it legitimately and thus, unable to exchange it, decided to conceal it. As potential Treasure, the hoard is now being studied in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum; the ensuing report should reveal more about this important find.
Andrew Richardson