Matthew Ball
@matthewball.bsky.social
Curator: Iron Age and Roman coins for @findsorguk.bsky.social at the British Museum. All ill-informed opinions my own. Vice-President of the Royal Numismatic Society. Roman Britain, poking around medieval churches, gardening, and drawing.
1,800 years ago, someone snipped the edge of this denarius, discovered it was just a silver-plated forgery, and then vented their rage on the poor coin itself by repeatedly hacking its surface. Recorded with @findsorguk.bsky.social this week: finds.org.uk/database/art... #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
June 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
1,800 years ago, someone snipped the edge of this denarius, discovered it was just a silver-plated forgery, and then vented their rage on the poor coin itself by repeatedly hacking its surface. Recorded with @findsorguk.bsky.social this week: finds.org.uk/database/art... #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
*Is* there a nicer flower than a lupin? ☀️
May 18, 2025 at 12:01 PM
*Is* there a nicer flower than a lupin? ☀️
One of the very few images of Amminus, an #IronAge ruler from the area of Kent, who might have been the person #Suetonius tells us fled across the Channel to seek aid from #Caligula c. AD 40. This is the first example recorded with @findsorguk.bsky.social #FindsFriday
finds.org.uk/database/art...
finds.org.uk/database/art...
May 9, 2025 at 12:21 PM
One of the very few images of Amminus, an #IronAge ruler from the area of Kent, who might have been the person #Suetonius tells us fled across the Channel to seek aid from #Caligula c. AD 40. This is the first example recorded with @findsorguk.bsky.social #FindsFriday
finds.org.uk/database/art...
finds.org.uk/database/art...
Carpets of English bluebells on the slopes of the Wrekin in #Shropshire.
May 3, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Carpets of English bluebells on the slopes of the Wrekin in #Shropshire.
A heap of radiates struck for Tetricus I (AD 271-274) at Trier, Germany. From the massive Frome hoard of c 54,000 other third century coins, now in the final stages of being sorted at the British Museum. @findsorguk.bsky.social #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
May 2, 2025 at 7:49 AM
A heap of radiates struck for Tetricus I (AD 271-274) at Trier, Germany. From the massive Frome hoard of c 54,000 other third century coins, now in the final stages of being sorted at the British Museum. @findsorguk.bsky.social #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
Nothing special — only the oldest known example of the name ‘London’ in existence. Circa AD 70. ‘Londinio Mogontio’ (To Mogontius in London). #romansitesaturday
February 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Nothing special — only the oldest known example of the name ‘London’ in existence. Circa AD 70. ‘Londinio Mogontio’ (To Mogontius in London). #romansitesaturday
HOW has it taken me this long to see the wonderful (and free!) exhibition of the Bloomberg finds? assets.bbhub.io/company/site... #romansitesaturday #romanbritain
February 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM
HOW has it taken me this long to see the wonderful (and free!) exhibition of the Bloomberg finds? assets.bbhub.io/company/site... #romansitesaturday #romanbritain
Love this republican denarius struck for Q. Metellus Pius c. 81 BC. Elephant on the reverse and what I want to believe is a diplodocus (and not a ?stork) on the obverse. Found in Cheshire and reported to @susieflo.bsky.social this week. Record: finds.org.uk/database/art... #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
February 7, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Love this republican denarius struck for Q. Metellus Pius c. 81 BC. Elephant on the reverse and what I want to believe is a diplodocus (and not a ?stork) on the obverse. Found in Cheshire and reported to @susieflo.bsky.social this week. Record: finds.org.uk/database/art... #FindsFriday #RomanBritain
…in fact a shortening of ‘Redeunt Saturnia Regna’, from Virgil’s Eclogue IV (The Saturnian [/Golden] Age has come). The next line of the eclogue appears on a medallion at the British Museum: INPCDA=‘Iam Nova Progenies Caelo Demittitur Alto’ (now a new generation is let down from Heaven above) (2/4)
January 24, 2025 at 9:19 AM
…in fact a shortening of ‘Redeunt Saturnia Regna’, from Virgil’s Eclogue IV (The Saturnian [/Golden] Age has come). The next line of the eclogue appears on a medallion at the British Museum: INPCDA=‘Iam Nova Progenies Caelo Demittitur Alto’ (now a new generation is let down from Heaven above) (2/4)
This cracking and scarce denarius of the British rebel emperor, Carausius, found in
Hampshire, was reported to us at @findsorguk.bsky.social this week. Struck AD 286-288, it depicts a lion holding a thunderbolt in its mouth, with the letters RSR below. These are... #findsfriday #romanbritain (1/4)
Hampshire, was reported to us at @findsorguk.bsky.social this week. Struck AD 286-288, it depicts a lion holding a thunderbolt in its mouth, with the letters RSR below. These are... #findsfriday #romanbritain (1/4)
January 24, 2025 at 9:19 AM
This cracking and scarce denarius of the British rebel emperor, Carausius, found in
Hampshire, was reported to us at @findsorguk.bsky.social this week. Struck AD 286-288, it depicts a lion holding a thunderbolt in its mouth, with the letters RSR below. These are... #findsfriday #romanbritain (1/4)
Hampshire, was reported to us at @findsorguk.bsky.social this week. Struck AD 286-288, it depicts a lion holding a thunderbolt in its mouth, with the letters RSR below. These are... #findsfriday #romanbritain (1/4)
Fascinating to see an item of personal jewellery with a motif copied verbatim from a common circulating coin: numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....
January 15, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Fascinating to see an item of personal jewellery with a motif copied verbatim from a common circulating coin: numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric....
Prague is lovely (bridge, funky clock, etc.), but after a week of various German/Austrian/Slovak/Czech takes on boiled pork, cabbage, and bread, its chief benefit is the excellent Mexican food and cocktails we had for lunch. FLAVOUR. TEXTURE. SPICES.
January 3, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Prague is lovely (bridge, funky clock, etc.), but after a week of various German/Austrian/Slovak/Czech takes on boiled pork, cabbage, and bread, its chief benefit is the excellent Mexican food and cocktails we had for lunch. FLAVOUR. TEXTURE. SPICES.
Just out of the bag - this chunky sestertius of #MarcusAurelius, showing Aurelius standing between four standards. No wonder some early modern scholars thought these beautiful coins were medals rather than money. Rome, c. AD 164-65; excavated at the fort at #Binchester. #RomanBritain #FindsFriday
December 20, 2024 at 1:23 PM
Just out of the bag - this chunky sestertius of #MarcusAurelius, showing Aurelius standing between four standards. No wonder some early modern scholars thought these beautiful coins were medals rather than money. Rome, c. AD 164-65; excavated at the fort at #Binchester. #RomanBritain #FindsFriday
This is neat: a group of five 4th century copper coins, fused together in a little stack. Zoom in and you’ll see the weave of their fabric wrapper has mineralised, preserving this little hoard as it looked on the day of its deposition c. 1,700 years ago. #RomanBritain #FindsFriday (1/2)
December 20, 2024 at 9:26 AM
This is neat: a group of five 4th century copper coins, fused together in a little stack. Zoom in and you’ll see the weave of their fabric wrapper has mineralised, preserving this little hoard as it looked on the day of its deposition c. 1,700 years ago. #RomanBritain #FindsFriday (1/2)
That felt good. Don’t even remember the last time I actually enjoying checking in on my Twitter account.
December 1, 2024 at 9:57 PM
That felt good. Don’t even remember the last time I actually enjoying checking in on my Twitter account.
Wading through more coins on a rainy Sunday. MARTI PATRI PROPVGNATORI: ‘Mars the Defending Father’, on a nicely preserved nummus struck for Constantine I at Trier, AD 307. Found in the extramural settlement of the fort at #Binchester, Co. Durham. #RomanBritain
December 1, 2024 at 9:55 AM
Wading through more coins on a rainy Sunday. MARTI PATRI PROPVGNATORI: ‘Mars the Defending Father’, on a nicely preserved nummus struck for Constantine I at Trier, AD 307. Found in the extramural settlement of the fort at #Binchester, Co. Durham. #RomanBritain
Trying to preserve the new-found sanctity of this space.
November 26, 2024 at 11:20 AM
Trying to preserve the new-found sanctity of this space.
Identifying piles of Roman coins at the weekend. I really know how to live, laugh, love.
This design, on a nummus struck at Trier for Constantius II, c. 353, is appropriate enough for a Sunday, I guess… #RomanBritain
This design, on a nummus struck at Trier for Constantius II, c. 353, is appropriate enough for a Sunday, I guess… #RomanBritain
November 24, 2024 at 12:52 PM
Identifying piles of Roman coins at the weekend. I really know how to live, laugh, love.
This design, on a nummus struck at Trier for Constantius II, c. 353, is appropriate enough for a Sunday, I guess… #RomanBritain
This design, on a nummus struck at Trier for Constantius II, c. 353, is appropriate enough for a Sunday, I guess… #RomanBritain
A rare (if battered) silver quinarius struck at Rome for the prince Caracalla c.208. This tiny coin of ~1g probably came to Britain in association with the emperor, his sons #Caracalla and #Geta, and the imperial court, all of whom were in Britain for the war in the north c.208-10 #FindsFriday (1/2)
November 22, 2024 at 11:22 AM
A rare (if battered) silver quinarius struck at Rome for the prince Caracalla c.208. This tiny coin of ~1g probably came to Britain in association with the emperor, his sons #Caracalla and #Geta, and the imperial court, all of whom were in Britain for the war in the north c.208-10 #FindsFriday (1/2)
Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf on a coin struck c.309-12 at the mint of #Ostia, near Rome, for the short-lived emperor Maxentius. SAECVLI FELICITAS AVG N: ‘to the happy age of our emperor’. (Not so happy for Maxentius, who drowned in the Tiber in 312)
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
November 20, 2024 at 2:47 PM
Romulus and Remus with the she-wolf on a coin struck c.309-12 at the mint of #Ostia, near Rome, for the short-lived emperor Maxentius. SAECVLI FELICITAS AVG N: ‘to the happy age of our emperor’. (Not so happy for Maxentius, who drowned in the Tiber in 312)
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
From a recent trek up to Beeston Castle, built atop a high crag by Ranulf, Earl of Chester c.1220, who was doubtless attracted to the site by the earthworks of an expansive #IronAge #hillfort. Here the rock-cut ditch and curtain wall of the inner bailey with the Cheshire Plain far below:
November 16, 2024 at 9:42 AM