The Coins from Excavations in Colchester 1971-9

Contributions from Marion Archibald, Justine Bayley, Nina Crummy, Philip Crummy, John A. Davies, Roger Goodburn, Michael Hammerson, Robert Kenyon, Richard Reece, and Martin Winter. This volume is the fourth in the series 'Colchester Archaeological Reports'. It presents in detail the coins from the excavations carried out between 1971 and 1979 in Colchester by the Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd, and also covers material of interest to Roman coin specialists from the Culver Street Phase 1 excavation of 1981-2. There has been a drift towards specialisation in Roman coin studies over the last decade or so, partly as a result of an increased awareness of the very large numbers of irregular coins present within all Romano-British assemblages. This awareness was stimulated in particular by George Boon's paper (1974a, 95-171) on 'Counterfeit coins in Roman Britain' at the conference 'Coins and the Archaeologist'. It is no longer adequate to describe coins as 'copies' or 'barbarous' without attempting some systematic study, preferably linked to examples from dated contexts. This coin report therefore concentrates on the Roman period, presenting for the first time the ideas of the new specialists.