Roman Coin Discovered In New Zealand

[Mighty_Emperor]

River bank issues ancient Roman coin

Blenheim
December 27, 2003


A Roman copper coin, thousands of years old, has been uncovered during excavation on a river bank in Marlborough.

The coin, with Caesar Augustus stamped on it, is believed to have come from the year 7BC.

Marlborough District Council's reserves supervisor Russell Montgomery said it was an exciting find, although it would never be known how it got there.

"It could have been flicked off a bridge in 1940 or dumped in ballast in 1840 - we will never know," he said.

The coin was found by archaeologist Reg Nichol.

Work stopped when what was obviously a wharf or bridge structure was uncovered and Mr Nichol called in. He described the coin as a fascinating find - probably the oldest coin found in New Zealand - but he made it clear that it did not mean the Romans had been in Marlborough.

"In historical terms, it has very little significance," he said. "It is just a curiosity item."

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/26/1072308676546.html

 

[Yithian]

"In historical terms, it has very little significance," he said. "It is just a curiosity item."

Because, its discovery so far from its 'natural' home does not fit with established historical or archaeological thinking...

Which means the data is classified a 'curiosity' and, hence, not a challenge to agreed paradigms and theories...

 

[OneWingedBird]

Maybe it was 'ritual'.

 

[Melf]

i sometimes throw a small coin in to a river.
i dont know why. maybe its a "symbolic offering?"

does anyone else do this?

 

[Anome]

Fountains all over Canberra have signs saying "Please don't throw coins".

I don't know that the Romans would have made it to NZ (or Australia).

The Chinese may have, though.

And there's a guy in Sydney who claims that the Egyptians did, because he has some hieroglyphs in a gully somewhere. (He won't tell anyone where, and all people going to see it have to be blindfolded.)

But it is much more likely to have been lost by a collector somewhere.

 

[Yithian]

Maybe it was 'ritual'.

 

[Anonymous]

Throwing coins in rivers and pond is of course a ritual. Some in the hope of getting a wish granted, others in the hope that you will cross without falling in. Here in the north, people would throw a coin into roaring roivers if they were to cross them to pay the "Noekke", otherwise he might make you fall and drown.

I think it is quite jumping to conclusions that they don't do more out of the coin because of dogma. I have heard reports here and there of coins, where they have then gone ahead and said "Okay, we were wrong the arabs/romans/chinese really were here." In this case it might be because the dig was not very deep. If the coin dated from roman times you'd expect it to be quite deep in the ground. Perhaps this dig was only a few meters deep, and the coin was only found after it had all been thrown in a pile somewhere so they couldn't date it.

 

[Jack_Ramirez]

Re: Re: New Zealand roman coin

Which means the data is classified a 'curiosity' and, hence, not a challenge to agreed paradigms and theories...

so cynical, next you'll be saying scientists cover things up which dont fit in with their world view:eek!!!!:

 

[Anonymous]

its those fucking hobbits!

 

[marion]

I found an earth covered sixpence in the till last year, minted in the year of my birth, I changed it for a five pence coin from my purse and threw it in a (muddy and hidden) holy well and made a wish. If someone excavated it this year they might think it had been there for decades!

I heard a story once of some archaeologists who went field walking and found some amazing bits of pottery from far flung places- all very exciting until they later discovered a nearby house had been lived in by a well travelled man with an interest in ancient history etc, whose collection of pottery shards was thrown onto the field next to his house afer his death!

 

[borubryan]

This reminds me of something that happened to my uncle about 10 or so years ago...he and my aunt were having a new deck added to the back of their house, and holes were being dug for the posts to support the deck. Not sure how many feet down they dug, but my uncle told me in one of the holes, he saw something shiny in the dirt. It was a coin. Knowing I collected coins (and still do), he had me come over and look at it. It ended up being a silver 2 reales coin minted in Mexico during the Spanish Colonial period. My uncle said I could have it. I kept it for a while, then sold it for about $20. My aunt and uncle lived (at the time) in Chicago, in an area at the northwesternmost limits of the city. My uncle's thought was that the coin could've been dropped by someone in the early days of the US, when Colonial coinage was still legal tender. Nothing particularly strange, just an unusual find.