Roman Coin Find

A copper-alloy Roman Republican semunicia of anonymous issuer,dating to the period c217-215 BC (Reece Period 1) was found on Parish Council land known to be formed from material cleared from London in the Post-Medieval period after the Great Fire of 1666. The area 200m to the south-east of the find spot however is the location of a suspected Roman Villa. It is therefore unclear whether this coin is a genuine ancient loss relating to the nearby Roman site redeposited alongside other material from London or a more recent antiquarian loss.

Republican period bronze coinage is extremely rare in Britain, with fewer than ten examples securely identified on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. More information is available here: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/969879

The coin is currently being held by the Finds Liaison Officer in Maidstone and we hope that she will be able to bring it along to a Parish Council meeting for people to see. It will eventually be displayed by the British Museum in London.