The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

A FIND OF ROMAN COINS NEAR NUNEATON. 307
Matidia as No. 1, but reading on obverse DIVA MATIDIA
AVGVSTA.
Hadrian, No. 137, 156, 189, 233, 298, 345,368, 476, 514.
Supp., No. 35.
.Elius, No. 22.
Antoninus Pius as No. 108, but TR.P.X. 109, 134, 166,
276.
Antoninus and Aurelius, No. 4.
Faustina the Elder, No. 14, 34.
Marcus Aurelius, No. 40, 213, 288, 353.
The latest of these coins is that of Aurelius (Cohen,
No. 288), which is of his twentieth year of Tribunitian
power or A.D. 166, so that the hoard cannot have been
deposited until after that date. History, however, does
not seem to record any special circumstances in Britain
such as might naturally lead to the concealment of hoards
of money about that period. The deposit was therefore
probably a treasure belonging to some private person who
after having buried it was from some cause or other un-
able to recover it. The district around Nuneaton must
have been fairly peopled in Roman times. The Watling
Street runs within a few miles of the place, and the
Roman Station of Manduessedum, now Mancetter, is also
not far off, where coins have frequently been found.
There are, as will have been seen, a few rather scarce
coins in the hoard. Both the Matidia and the JElius are
in good condition, especially the latter, and it is a remark-
able circumstance that among these coins found in central
Britain there should be one of Matidia presenting a fresh
arrangement of the obverse legend. The coin of Antoninus
Pius (Cohen, No. 134) with the Emperor standing in
a temple, and the legend COS II II is also of a scarce
type. With but few exceptions the other coins are of
common occurrence ;
SAL. AVG is, I think, a new variety.
but the Trajan with the reverse of
JOHN EVANS.