Mildenhall Hoard discovered in 1833

[Victor]

I just won a lot of 49 coins from the Mildenhall Hoard. It was discovered in 1833. There were 1,286 coins from the 3rd century. One was a denarius of Caracalla and the rest were antoniniani from Valerian to Aurelian. Hopefully it will be an interesting group. The auction only showed 10 coins, so maybe the rest will not be a complete disappointment.

I have attached the 1954 article from Numismatic Chronicle about the hoard, if anyone is interested.

[Pharsalus]

Congratulations Victor, that’s an early provenance and an interesting article! One thing that strikes me as odd though is the inclusion of Probus in the auction listing; the article suggests Aurelian was the latest emperor, with burial around 270 CE. Maybe CNG meant Aurelian?

[Victor]

Yes, the latest coins in the hoard were from Aurelian, so CNG just made a mistake in their listing.

[Pharsalus]

That makes sense given the order they listed the emperors too. The article bodes well for the Aurelians; there were only 5 in the whole hoard, and the article suggests they were in “excellent” condition. Please post some follow-up photos of the goodies when they come!

[Victor]

I will post some some...doubt I will get an Aurelian in the group, but I might get lucky.

[Victor]

the coins are in fairly rough condition, not surprising though because when they were discovered they were a "badly rusted mass of coins"

the example below is interesting because it is not in RIC for the bust (head with slight drapery) but is in Göbl


Gallienus
A.D. 264- 265
Ӕ Antoninianus
18x20mm     2.4g
GALLIENVS AVG; radiate head left with slight drapery over right shoulder.
IOVI CONSERVA; Jupiter stg. l.; holding thunderbolt and sceptre; at foot eagle; in left field S.
RIC Vi Mediolanum 486 var.; Göbl 1037L

Mildenhall Hoard of 1833

[Victor]

Well, there actually was a Probus coin included; which makes little sense. I am assuming it was mistakenly mixed in by a previous owner, since the Numismatic Chronicle is very clear that the latest coins were 5 from Aurelian and suggests a burial date of circa A.D. 270. This Probus is from Ticinum and struck in A.D. 278. The coin is very worn and has similar rust spots as many of the other coins from Mildenhall though. I emailed CNG and hope they will have some clarification about the coin, though I don't expect anything this far removed (some 70 years) from when the hoard was cleaned and examined.


Probus
A.D. 278
Ӕ Antoninianus
20x22mm       2.0g
VIRTVS PROBI AVG; Radiate helmet, cuirassed bust left with spear over right shoulder and shield on left.
VIRTVS AVG; Mars advancing right carrying transverse spear and trophy over shoulder.
In ex. PXXT
RIC Vii Ticinum 430 

[Victor]

surprise...no response from CNG (edit-- finally heard from them...they are not sure how the Probus made it into the lot, just that it came with the others from the previous owner)

Anyway, I have sorted out one tray's worth of coins that I am going to keep--

[Pharsalus]

Thanks for the follow up photos Victor, looks like there are some nice ones in your tray.