Anglo-Saxon imitation Roman gold coins declare treasure –

An imitation of late Anglo-Saxon Roman gold solidus discovered in Norfolk last year has been declared a treasure. This is a rough copy of a solidus cast by Emperor Honorius (r. 393-423 AD), minted long after his death and worn as a pendant.

The imitation Honorius coin has a ribbed suspension ring with four ribs and three grooves, welded at the 12 o’clock position. Wear on the ring indicates that the coin was worn as a pendant for a long period of time, most likely with the obverse (the emperor’s bust) exposed and the reverse attached to the body.

Several versions of authentic slash coins were minted between 394 and 402 AD in the imperial capital Mediolanum (Milan), Ravenna and Constantinople. Their obverses depict a bust of Honorius, draped in a cape and wearing a crown of pearls. The pattern on the back shows the emperor standing, holding a military flag in his right hand and a winged statue of the goddess of victory in his left hand. At his left foot is a bound prisoner. There are minor differences between different mints of this coin, and the military standard held by Honorius came in several forms. Some coins have a standard emblem: a banner suspended from a crossbar mounted on a vertical pole. Others have a labarum, a vexillum with the Chi-Rho symbol on top, which was the amulet carried by Constantine.

The vexillum on the Anglo-Saxon imitation looks like a Christian cross inside a square, but the Anglo-Saxons were not Christian yet, and anyway even the Christian version of the vexillum is more than just a simple cross inside a banner ; It is the ☧ symbol with a P ring at the top of the center of the banner. The small gold coins were difficult to identify, and the scribes did not have the cultural awareness or skills to distinguish them. The abstract lines that are supposed to convey winged victory emphasize these limitations. They also removed the captives entirely, probably because of its complexity, but they may have rejected the imagery of conquest, which is an interesting idea, as the patrons who designed these coins must have viewed them as barbarians at the feet of the emperor, rather than the emperor. They identified with their emperor.

Dr Marsden, of Norfolk’s Historic Environment Service, said that during this era, the Roman Empire, which officially became a Christian state in AD 380, was in “free fall”.

“We know that the Anglo-Saxons of this period were pagans who were moving in and starting to take over all of England, mainly in the east at the moment,” he said.

“It’s kind of ironic that these people are definitely not Christians, but they are imitating Christian images – the question is whether they understand them – and they write the words wrong, so they must not be literate.”

A number of gold coins from the late Western Roman and Byzantine Empire have been found in Britain and were transformed into pendants during the early Middle Ages. Genuine Roman coins with rings added by the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th and 7th centuries have been found both individually and in coin hoards. Roman gold coins were difficult to find in their time and place, so they were better suited as status symbols than simply as gold bars. The Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples, most notably the Merovingian Franks, whose mints produced nearly all of England’s coins at the time, imitated the empire’s thulidays, dimes, and treys. Missi coins. All 37 gold coins found in the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo ship burial, 4 of which were imitations of Byzantine gold coins, came from different mints in Merovingian Gaul.

Dr Marsden said the imitation was “very unusual”.

“We see Roman gold coins being repurposed as coins, occasionally with very similar hanging rings, but here they made the whole thing from scratch,” he said.

Despite the collapse of the empire, the Anglo-Saxons would have encountered many impressive Roman buildings, as well as coins and artifacts, which is probably why they wanted to replicate something “so distinctly Roman.”