Recording recent Roman coin finds from Poland (2004-2007)

The number of new, amateur finds of Roman coins have been increasing rapidly in recent years. Researchers generally agree that coins from amateur finds are fully legitimate numismatic sources. It is estimated that non-archaeologists made no less than 90% of old discoveries of Roman coins from the area of central Barbaricum. This is also true for the beginning of the 21st century. The disadvantage of this situation lies in the fact that the lack of information about the context of most of the amateur finds significantly decrease their source value for archaeology. However, the mass representation of the material is a big advantage. In order to obtain more data on new discoveries from Poland, it was necessary to develop a project that would allow for collecting anonymous information about finds of Roman coins. The scheme of action was thus based on two kinds of activities. One of them involved searching information about the new discoveries of coins on the Internet and then expanding and verifying these data. The other involved propagating the project of recording finds as wide as it was possible in order to encourage finders to pass as much information about their discoveries as possible. During the realisation of the project, from May 2004 to November 2007, the number of 518 pieces of anonymous information had been gathered. This material comprised of 1,028 Roman coins from 448 finds. Among the newly reported finds, there were: 11 treasures and 437 small finds (113 group finds and 324 single finds). Basing on the collected data, we may assume that single finds of Roman coins are relatively rare in Poland, which can mean that they usually appear in a broader archaeological context. Unfortunately, in most cases we have no information about the context whatsoever. Some interesting observations on the collected material are worth mentioning here: • Republican denarii quite frequently occurred in small finds; • Denarii subaeratii also occurred quite frequently; we may assume that no less than 10 percent of all small finds of Roman denarii in Poland were in fact denarii subaeratii; • Three hoards similar to Drzewicz hoard were discovered in the basin of Bzura river, which may suggest that there were “Drzewicz type” hoards in that area; • The example of four hoards found in the Polish Jura suggests that hoards deposited on this territory in the Migration Period often contained a number of denarii and jewelry, including gold coins adapted for pendants. General methods of critical approach to such new material are still being developed, since information regarding the coins and the circumstances of their discovery happened sometimes to be, no matter if intentionally or not, false or distorted. Registration activities were continued in 2008 which resulted in capturing two important single finds: a siliqua of Constantius II discovered in a field in the village Prusice (commune Złotoryja) and a solidus of Arcadius found in a field in Rotmanka in the suburbs of Gdansk (6 figures, 2 tables).