A double-hoard from Tourouvre (dép. Orne). Jewelry and coins from Domitian to Victorinus

Abstract

During an excavation in 2010 in Tourouvre (dép. Orne) a mixed hoard of coins  and jewelry came to light. Two thirds of the coins, which had been  deposited in two glass bottles, were struck between 238 and 270. The final third is characterized by emissions of the period before Gordian III, the  earliest of which go back to the Flavians. The distribution of the production periods shows a preponderance of antoniniani of Gallienus and Postumus (260-269). The coin make-up points to a complicated hoarding process and, at the same time, allows the rapid spread of the Italian issues in Gaul during the first years of the Gallic Empire (260- 274) to be observed. This phenomenon suggests a military cause, most probably in connection with the
subsequent wars which in 266 and 267 involved Gallienus in the centre of the empire and Postumus in the west. Since no Gallic mint struck coinage for Gallienus, the flow of coin cannot just have served the payment of wages to the army, but also must be the result of the legitimate emperor’s attempts to hinder the extension of the power-base of the usurper. The range of coins in both bottles end with the same Trier emission of Victorinus. They thus comply with a group of depots with a terminus post quem of 270 which covers north-western Gaul and a part of Britannia’s coast. The reasons for this hiding  remain in the dark. However, the frequency of the coin-hoards hidden in the region under Victorinus indicates a period of unrest – unrest which perhaps was triggered by a series of incursions by the Germans.