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A Late-Roman Silver Ingot from Kent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

K. S. Painter
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Summary

A late-Roman silver ingot from Kent has recently come to light. It weighs one Roman pound and is stamped EX OFF CVRMISSI. All such ingots seem likely to have been distributed as imperial donatives to troops in the fourth century. They are related to presentation silver plate and other gifts of this type, and more than forty silver ingots are now known from the European Roman provinces. The only other known stamp by Curmissus—or perhaps the curator missionum—is on a broken ingot in the hoard from Coleraine, Co. Londonderry.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1972, pp. 84 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1972

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References

page 84 note 1 The ingot is now in the collections of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities. Its registration no. is P. 1970, 7–2, 1.

page 84 note 2 For the Roman pound see Chantraine, H. in Pauly-Wissowa, Real Encycl. ix A.i. (1961), 617 ff.Google Scholar, s.v. ‘uncia’.

page 84 note 3 For this report I am indebted to my colleagues A. E. Werner and W. A. Oddy.

page 84 note 4 See the list of ingots below, and Salomonson, J. W., ‘Zwei spätrömische Geschenk-Silber-barren mit eingestempelten Inschriften in Leiden’, in Oudheidkundige Mededelingen, xlii (1961), 63 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 85 note 1 Painter, K. S., ‘A Roman Silver Treasure from Canterbury’, in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, xxviii (1965), 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 85 note 2 Kent, J. P. C., ‘Gold Coinage in the Late Roman Empire’, in Carson, R. A. G. and Sutherland, C. H. V. (edd.), Essays in Roman Coinage Presented to Harold Mattingly (Oxford, 1956), pp. 190–204.Google Scholar

page 85 note 3 The Emperor Julian, on his accession in A.D. 361, quinos omnibus aureos argentique singula pondo promisit (Ammianus Marcellinus, xx, 4. 18). For subsequent years, Const. Porph. de Caerim. 412B, A.D. 457; 432B, a.d.473; 423, 425B, A.D. 491; 429B, A.D. 518.

page 85 note 4 The earliest dated examples of such ingots are the inscribed circular ingots in Leiden dated to a.d.305 (Salomonson, o.c), while the ingots from Kaiseraugst are dated to A.D. 351–61 (R. Laur-Belart, Der spätrömische Silierschatz von Kaiseraugst, Aargau, Augst, 1963). Licinius’ decennalia: Strong, D. E., Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate, London, 1966, pp. 199–200Google Scholar, Tait, G. H. in Antiq. Journ. li (1970), 344, and R. Camber in Burlington Magazine, Jan. 1972. Constantius II's vicennalia: L. Matzulewitsch, Byzantinische An-tike, 1929, p. 107, n. 1, pls. 24–5, and Strong, o.c, pp. 199–200 and fig. 38; Valentinian I's quinquen-nalia or decennalia: Strong, o.c., p. 200; Theodosius’ decennalia: R. Delbrueck, Die Consulardiptychen, 1929, pp. 235 ff., and Strong, o.c, p. 200 and pi. 64.Google Scholar

page 85 note 5 For the dishes from Červenbreg see list no. 38.

page 85 note 6 Mattingly, H., J. Pearce, W. E., and Kendrick, T. D., ‘The Coleraine Hoard’, in Antiquity, xi (1937). 39–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar. esp. 43–4.

page 86 note 1 Ingot no. 24 in the list of J.B.A.A. xxviii (1965), 13Google Scholar, from Din Lligwy, Anglesey, has been omitted from this list on the kind advice of Mr. G. C. Boon, Fellow, who writes, ‘The National Museum o.f Wales has the Din Lligwy material and the “ingot” with it, being accession no. 42.39572. This object corresponds to Baynes’ fig., p. 187, no. 2. It is not fragmentary; but it has evidently been cast in a groove in a stone. It may possibly be the result of cupelling argentiferous copper of local Anglesey origin. The weight is 12–94 gm., or a trifle more than Baynes made it.’