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6 - Belgian finds of late fourth-century Roman bronze

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010

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Summary

Official Roman bronze coins were still reaching northern Gaul in fairly large numbers during the last quarter of the fourth century AD. The subject of this paper is the widespread circulation within the confines of what is today Belgium of the bronze coins issued between the accession of Theodosius I on 19 January 379 and that of Theodosius II on 10 January 402. It provides an opportunity to examine the value of finds drawn from a restricted geographical area and of a plentiful but chronologically limited series.

Theodosian bronzes are known from some 40 Belgian sites. The total number of fourth-century coins produced by these sites is 3, 362, that is of issues struck from the reform of Diocletian in 294 to the year 402, when the regular supply of Roman bronze to the area was interrupted. Of this number, 809 are coins of the Theodosian period, giving an annual mean (i.e. a rough guide to relative frequency established by the total of specimens divided by the number of years) of 35, if the period is taken as one of 23 years, or 38, if the reformed coinage of Gratian is not supposed to have begun until 381. By comparison, the annual mean for the same sites taken over the whole period 294–402 is no more than 31 coins.

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Studies in Numismatic Method
Presented to Philip Grierson
, pp. 75 - 94
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1983

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