BARBAROUS RADIATE HOARDS: the INTERPRETATION of COIN DEPOSITS IN LATE THIRD-CENTURY ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary: The episode of prolific coin hoarding in Roman Britain between c. 259 and 287 has never been fully explained. This paper looks at a major group of these hoards; those recognised as containing irregular antoniniani. Two distinct sub-groups are identified, which are shown to have non-random, almost mutually exclusive, distributions. an explanation for coin hoarding is considered which associates the location of certain deposits with the spread of coin use to new, marginal, areas of Britain.