Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (11.2016)

A HOARD OF ROMAN DENARII...

The collection contains 184 Roman coins and a belt set, which consists of
a massive silver buckie, two smali buckles and eighty-four silver belt plates.
The overall weight of the hoard is morę than 700 g.
THE COINS
It is interesting to notę that one hundred and eighty-two of the coins are Roman
denarii and that the other two coins may be identified as barbarian imitations.
The so-called official denarii were minted by nine issuers (the numbers that follow
in brackets indicate the number of denarii minted per issuer and the percentage
of the hoard, respectively): Vespasian (1 sp., 0.55%), Domitian (1 sp., 0.55%),
Nerva (1 sp., 0.55%), Trajan (5 sp., 2.6%), Hadrian (13 sp., 7.14%), Antoninus
Pius (54 sp., 29.7%), Marcus Aurelius (67 sp., 36.7%), Commodus (39 sp., 21.3%)
and Didius Julianus (1 sp., 0.55%). The barbarian imitations consist of two coins
(1.09%). They imitate a denarius minted by Antoninus Pius (Marcus Aurelius
or Commodus) and one issued by Marcus Aurelius in memory of Antoninus
Pius.5 The oldest coin from the hoard is the denarius of Vespasian (AD 75), and
the earliest is a denarius of Didius Julianus (AD 193). The overall weight of
the coins is 492 g (the average weight per coin is about 2.67 g). The Iow weight of
each of the coins could be explained by the coins’ high degree of surface wear. This
is why the process of the coins’ identification is complicated (26 sp., or 14,13%
of the coins, have surfaces that are so badly damaged that it is only possible to
identify the issuer but not the datę of mintage). The coins’ bad condition could be
the result of their having been in circulation for a long period of time before being
deposited (information about the chronology of deposition can be found below).
Examination of the coins revealed a number of splits and swellings in the metal
on the coins’ obverse. As a rule, all these defects are closely connected to the coins’
substrate, for they consist of copper cores plated with silver. But it is very diflhcult
to form any definitive conclusions without performing a metallographic analysis.
Generally speaking, the whole set of these coins and their quantitative
distribution is typical of hoards of denarii found in the area of the Chemyakhiy
Culture.6 According to its chronological structure, the deposit of denarii from
Pimenovo may be identified as a Type D hoard, in accordance with Arkadiusz

5 Recently, the amount of information about single finds of barbarian imitations of Roman denarii
has increased dramatically. For morę information about the finds in Eastem Europę, see: ANOKHIN 2015,
or Oleg Anokhin’s web-site: http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru. An investigation into barbarian imitations on
the territory of Barbaricum is now taking place as part ofthe DFG/NCN Beethoven project “IMAGMA: Imagines
Maiestatis. Barbarian Coins, Elitę Identities and the Birth of Europę”, which is being conducted by the University
of Warsaw and the Romisch-Germanische Commission.
6 Cf.: MYZG1N 2013: 223.