/pt/ – Petrarchan

I just read this great AskHistorians post about Roman coins: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/xe3lza/comment/ioh7hkp/ > In the 18th and 19th centuries, historians, archeologists, and antique dealers / collectors touring the European countryside looking for interesting artifacts were encountering peasant communities who had a surprising knowledge of Roman coins: they kept finding them in their fields. > ... > According to Abbot Cochet, writing in 1855, French peasants often picked up Roman coins in their field, calling them sous de la Vierge, the Virgin's coins. Since they could not legally use them, they put them in the church poor box or gave them to the priest when he was taking offerings after the service. Cochet says that he knew several priests with a nice collection of Roman artifacts. > ... > In 1824, Bavarian parish priest Franz Anton Mayer, in a book about Roman coins in Bavaria, said that in the previous century, a large field near Gnotzheim, next to the Danubian Limes, was particularly rich in Roman coins, including silver and gold ones. The coins surfaced when one ploughed the land and when it rained. By the mid-1700s, the local peasants had collected so many of them that they "bought their beer at the tavern using Roman money". Apparently Roman coins have been found in places as far fetched as Sri Lanka and Japan. And there is a Roman 'emperor' from the third century, whose only trace in the historical record is that exactly two coins have been found bearing his likeness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbannacus When I was in the Roman Baths in Bath, in England, they had a timeline of Roman 'silver' coins spanning a large part of the Imperial period. What was interesting was how obvious the debasement was. The earliest ones remained shiny and noble - obviously precious. By the third century they looked like two-pence pieces. The coins had apparently been sorted into separate bags based on their age: a clearer demonstration of Gresham's Law you couldn't wish for!