By Yvonne Rose, Archives Supervisor (with thanks to Adam Daubney, Lincolnshire Finds Liaison Officer, for the original identification)

This month’s featured find is a lovely silver denarius recovered from a large site in North Lincolnshire.

The coin features Mark Anthony who was a Roman politician and general under Julius Caesar. It has been dated to 42 BC and is a quite rare example of the type. The obverse depicts Mark Antony’s bare head, and to the left of his portrait is a lituus – a symbol of augury. In ancient Rome, augurs were part of a college of priests whose duty was to interpret the will of the gods by observing natural signs, particularly the behaviour of birds. The reverse of the coin shows the radiate head of Sol, the Roman god of the sun. Interestingly, Mark Antony’s son by Cleopatra was named Alexander Helios; Helios being the personification of the sun in Greek mythology.

The coin, when new, would have borne a legend around the outer edge of the reverse. Now completely worn, it would have read M ANTONIVS III VIR R P C. This is the abbreviated form of “Marcus Antonius tresviri rei publicae constituendae”, which roughly translates to “Marcus Antonius, one of the three-man commission for restoring the constitution of the republic”. This commission was known as the Second Triumvirate and was the political alliance of Octavian (Caesar’s great nephew and adopted son), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Mark Antony. It was formed in November 43 BC, following Caesar’s assassination the previous year, with the intention of defeating his assassins, Brutus and Cassius, who had gained power in the eastern territories. It is possible this coin was minted to celebrate victory over the assassins in 42 BC.

Coins were manufactured using circular “blanks” of metal which would be warmed slightly to make them more malleable, and then placed within a metal die with the mould for one side of the coin on it. The metal die with the mould for the opposing side of the coin would be placed on top of the blank and then hit with a hammer. This is why many obverse and reverse sides of the coin don’t match up, as the die moulds weren’t necessarily lined up before hammering.

Coins were usually manufactured in static mints in towns, but this coin is likely to have been made in one of the military mints travelling with Mark Antony in Italy. As it was struck 81 years before Claudius invaded Britain, it makes it quite an intriguing find to have it made its way to North Lincolnshire!