Periods of hoarding in the late 3rd century (276-294) in the North-West Provinces

Abstract

Work on a lot of 28 reformed antoniniani (Aurelian to Diocletian / Maximian), which were bought as a »hoard from Metz« by the RGZM at the beginning of the 1950ies and which could form a fraction of the hoard of some 17,000 coins from Basse-Rentgen (dép. Moselle, found in 1896), has demonstrated the delayed depositing of these coins in the North-West Provinces of the Roman Empire. The periods of hoarding of 281-282 and 293 in Gaul and 293-296 in Britain are connected with no known supra-regional event. The make-up of the hoards in question also show that they were not formed as a result of changes in coinage, i. e. the withdrawal of official Gallic Empire coins in Gaul around 283 or the monetary reform of Diocletian in 294. Since without exception they have reformed antoniniani from the mint at Lyon as their latest issues, it is rather the extensive deviations in the striking and distribution of the reformed antoniniani which in the first place influenced the moment of their closure. In the currency of northern Gaul during the late 3rd century, where antoniniani of Gallienus or Claudius Gothicus (Divo Claudio) and copies of coins of the Gallic Empire dominated, any addition of reformed antoniniani must have improved the hoarding of the better, newly struck coins. The exact events which prevented the retrieval of the hoards analysed are not known. The theory of barbarian raids remains less convincing, since the hoards developing contemporarily were hidden somewhat widely distributed between the Loire and the Rhine.