Hoard of silver Roman coins found in UK — and some date to reign of Marcus Aurelius

Metal detectorists in the east of England have discovered a cache of Roman silver coins that depict several emperors and even some of their wives.

The most famous ruler featured in the hoard is arguably the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (reigned from A.D. 161 to 180), while his wife, Faustina II, is portrayed on a coin of her own. Aurelius, one of the "five good emperors of Rome," is best known for writing his "Meditations" and thoughts on Stoic philosophy.

Adrian Marsden, a coin specialist at the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, which is part of the regional government, said the coins were found near the village of Barton Bendish in the county of Norfolk, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the town of King's Lynn.

Each of the 16 coins is a denarius — the standard Roman coin — and Marsden estimates that the entire horde would have been worth the equivalent of a few hundred dollars at the time. "It's a reasonable sum of money, but it's not life changing," he told Live Science.

The coin hoard was unearthed in 2023 and handed over in March 2024 to the Norfolk authorities, who announced the find on March 1. The hoard is now the subject of an inquest in which a judicial official will determine if it can officially be considered "treasure" — which in England refers to metallic artifacts or coins that are at least 300 years old and are at least 10% gold or silver by weight. If it is officially "treasure" then the coins may be turned over to a museum at King's Lynn and the finders and landowners could be compensated.

Related: 32 stunning centuries-old hoards unearthed by metal detectorists

Roman Norfolk

Norfolk was an important part of Roman Britain, with many large villas that acted as the hubs of farming estates, Marsden said. One of Britain's longest Roman roads passed through the region; and the west of Norfolk, in particular, was considered prime land for farming because the soil there was fertile.

The Roman coin hoard may have been buried at the time for safekeeping, which was a common practice in an era when there were no banks. It's also possible that a person lost a purse that held the coins: "This [explanation] would work for something this size," Marsden said.

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Two of the newfound silver coins portray the wives of the Roman emperors, including Faustina I, the wife of Antoninus Pius, and Faustina II, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, shown here.

One of the coins portrays the Roman emperor Vespasian, a former military commander who ruled from A.D. 69 until his death in 79.

Top row: The earliest coins date from the Roman Republic and portray one of the two elected consuls at this time. Bottom row: One coin portrays the Roman emperor Hadrian, who in about A.D. 122 ordered a wall be built across the north of Britain.

Stable value

The analysis of the coins shows the earliest was made in about 57 B.C., during the late stages of the Roman Republic when Roman officials were ostensibly elected by popular vote. The latest coins date from the reign of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and were made in A.D. 175 or 176.

Roman coins were not dated as most modern coins are, but the dates when they were minted were well known to modern numismatists (coin experts), Marsden said. And while many of the coins portray the Roman emperor at the time they were made, two of them instead portray the emperors' wives — Faustina I, the wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius, and Faustina II, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, he said.

A hoard that contains coins spanning more than 200 years is a sign that the Roman currency at the time was relatively stable, Marsden said. Hoards from times when the Roman currency was being devalued — when more base metals were added to the silver — tended to have coins only from a specific time.

If that were the case here, the older coins with more silver would have been taken out and then melted for their precious metal. But the silver content of the oldest and youngest coins in this hoard seem to have been about the same, he said.

The coins come from the beginning of a "non-fiduciary" period when the silver metal in one denarius was about equal to the value as currency of the denarius itself. At that time, everyday purchases might be made for so many denarius coins, or denarii, Marsden said. But it was likely that the coins would have been weighed out for large transactions. Modern coins are "fiduciary" because the metal they contain is worth only a fraction of their value as currency, which is backed by a modern financial system, he said.