On 30th October 2015, I attended Sam Moorhead’s course on identification of 4th Century Roman nummi at the British Museum. Sam Moorhead is the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s (PAS) National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman coins based at the Museum. I now have three such courses under my belt including radiate training and the broader course on identifying and recording Roman coins. I just need to attend the Early Augustan Coins course to complete the set!
As a long-term self-recorder with the PAS I am fascinated by how the accurate recording of Roman coin finds can bring history and the ancient landscape to life. However this depends on the accuracy and detail of identification, and after attending Sam’s courses I now realise how lazy I have been! His amazing expertise, enthusiasm and passion have boosted my confidence immensely and will certainly improve the quality of my records.
As before the audience was a varied bunch including detectorists, PAS volunteers, students and a couple of Thames ‘mudlarks’. No time for chatting though, with a detailed but highly accessible presentation (Nummification – The Glorious World of 4th Century Nummi) before lunch followed by hands-on coin identification in the afternoon.
Despite my schoolboy errors (not realising an R mintmark might be from Rome….) I found myself identifying mints with confidence and I finally lost my terror of the dreaded fat green Roman Imperial Coinage volumes to pin some coins down exactly.
In the past Sam has been tremendously generous with his time and expertise to help me identify and record my coins in the greatest possible detail. This has opened my eyes to the importance of Reece Period analysis which amongst other insights has pinpointed a possible Roman temple site.
One of my coin finds stands out. After many hours fruitlessly trying to identify what I thought was a Republican denarius I sought Sam’s advice: it is a very rare coin from the Civil Wars in Nero’s reign minted in Gaul and is of national importance – wow!
Roman Civil Wars denarius. Copyright: Phil Harding. License: CC-BY.Roman Civil Wars denarius as found. Copyright: Phil Harding. License: CC-BY.
We are fortunate in Leicestershire that the county and Wendy Scott our FLO has been the initial catalyst for self-recording training during the pilot phase of the PASt Explorers project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Having attended a well organised training session at the University of Leicester to learn the basics of using the PAS database for recording, the next module I attended was a behind the scenes look at the work of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and the Treasure team at the British Museum for the Scheme’s volunteers from across the country.
John and another volunteer examine a Treasure find with Helen Geake, PASt Explorers Project Officer. Copyright: Portable Antiquities Scheme. License: CC-BY.
The day started with the usual security checks & signing in before we were collectively welcomed by Clemency Cooper, the Outreach Officer for PASt Explorers.
We then had a very interesting talk by Ian Richardson, Treasure Registrar, on the Treasure process and the increase of Treasure cases since PAS was launched nationally. As could be expected a good number of detectorists were able to ask Ian some pertinent & tough questions around the process and how it could be better for the involved parties.
There is an obvious desire within the Treasure team to ensure all coroners follow a standardised process, this has become more important as the funding for a sole treasure coroner has slipped out of anyone’s budget seemingly lost somewhere between the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Culture, Media & Sport despite the will of Parliament when it included the post in the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
The eternal public sector funding issue and cuts is also part of the reason the contribution of the volunteers attending is so crucial, the reality is that the more we can do to help our local FLOs the more they will be able to focus on the finds of greater importance.
Another benefit of attending was to be able to talk to other volunteers and discuss our varying problems when recording and learn from each other a number of tips and tricks to ease our collective journey.
Sam Moorhead, National Finds Adviser, shows volunteers the reference collection of Roman coins in the department of Coins and Medals. Copyright: Portable Antiquities Scheme. License: CC-BY.
The afternoon saw us split into a number of smaller groups and my group was taken into “Sam’s World” of Coins & Medals (Sam Moorhead, National Finds Adviser for Iron Age and Roman Coins).
My limited vocabulary couldn’t do justice to what we saw, it was truly staggering to see what hoards, such as those from Frome & Seaton Down, actually break down into and the academic information they provide as they are identified, packaged & catalogued coin by coin, which was demonstrated by Sam’s colleague, Vincent Drost, Project Curator for Romano-British coin finds .
Sam describes the BM collection as the world’s biggest live coin reference library and I would find it hard to disagree. However it was good to see that even the eternal “grots” can contribute to knowledge & understanding as can any recorded coin or artefact.
From Coins & Medals we moved into the realms of the Treasure team where we were able to view and learn about some “live” Treasure cases and more about how the system works with Ian and Helen Geake, PASt Explorers Project Officer. It gave a good insight into why the system can be perceived as slow and ponderous. Paperwork, paperwork & legal process doesn’t make for an easy or swift journey!!
This was followed by a gallery tour of British history hosted by Ian Richardson and a review of some renowned treasure cases and others that pre-dated the current system.
Overall it was a jam packed day with lots learnt, some great networking opportunities and an understanding of how the “stuff” we discover fits in to the academic world and the importance of everyone doing a little bit to help support what is a world recognised success story… The Portable Antiquities Scheme.
Looking at current Treasure finds in the Britain, Europe and Prehistory study room with Ian Richardson, Treasure Registrar. Copyright: Portable Antiquities Scheme. License: CC-BY.Admiring the Mildenhall Treasure in the Roman Britain gallery found during ploughing in Suffolk. Copyright: Portable Antiquities Scheme. License: CC-BY.
