Roman Coin Maps
Here is a selection of maps showing coins found in Scotland. It doesn’t mean the Romans were in that place; it just means someone had their coins there. In modern times, coins brought from abroad have been lost, or the earth used for building foundations has transported the coins from elsewhere.
There are three sources for these maps
- Historic Environment Scotland Canmore database
- Treasure Trove Unit which has metal detectorist finds
- Academic papers as listed below including Anne Robertson’s paper
Coin hoards may indicate bribes paid to tribes not to attack the Romans. Patterns of coins are indicative of engagement.
References
- In 1934 Roman Coins found in Scotland (III.), including a Hoard from Falkirk published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
- In 1989 The Numismatic Evidence for the Post-Agricolan Abandonment of the Roman Frontier in Northern Scotland by Andrew S Hobley
- In 2002 A Survey of the Coin Finds from the Antonine Wall was published by Richard Abdy (jstor login required) and lists all the coins found along the route of the Antonine Wall.
- In 2003 The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland published Roman coins found in Scotland, 1971-1982 (pp 405-48) Robertson, Anne S which gives (academic) background to coin distribution.
- In 2013 the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland published Roman and medieval coins found in Scotland, 2006 -10 (also at National Museums of Scotland)
- see also The Distribution of Late Roman Coinage in Britain
- See Mints active under the Roman Empire from the Portable Antiquities Scheme/ The Trustees of the British Museum
- Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE). A joint project of the American Numismatic Society and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University is a revolutionary new tool designed to help in the identification, cataloguing, and research of the rich and varied coinage of the Roman Empire. The project records every published type of Roman Imperial Coinage from Augustus in 31 BC, until the death of Zeno in AD 491. This is an easy-to-use digital corpus, with downloadable catalogue entries, incorporating over 43,000 types of coins.
What is the basis of the mapped coin locations and mapped hoards. Is it just stuff in Historic Environment records. These miss a lot of find sites because they rely on previous lists that were around to transcribe. A better picture might be obtained from research in non-HER sources.
Tom, Thanks for your comment. I have now added in my references which I should have detailed. The Treasure Trove Unit give me a list of metal detectorist finds each year. If there are any sources I have missed pleased to know about them.
If relying mainly on metal detector finds it may be best to state that. Often hoards turned up accidentally, by ploughing, digging foundations for houses or boundary walls, digging drains etc. Some of these going back as far as the 18th century or further, were picked up in the precursors of modern archaeological records, but others were entirely missed, though they can be traced from history books and old newspaper accounts. Collectors in the 19th century wanted this information and the newspapers obliged, so plenty of hoards had records of some sort. But there is a lot of work involved, and probably best to limit the map database to readily available sources. There are not the means for these to be published as historically derived sources tend to be excluded from archaeology publications. I did try to publish a book on this but had no takers.
So the map is mainly using HES data. If you click on the coin pin then you will see the source as HES or in some cases Treasure Trove. The metal detectorist finds are from the last few years authenticated by Treasure Trove. Mapping coins can show trends.