HOARD (ROMAN)

Robertson 2000, 8-9 no. 35:



"Near the eastern boundary of the parish of Borden, and near the farm-house called Hart's Delight, while digging ground for a garden, "Mr. Prentis' men discovered three gold coins. At first two were found together, one being Roman, and bearing the profile of Claudius Caesar, the other being a British coin of Cunobelin.

The second discovery brought to light only one coin; another Cunobelin, but of a type which has never before been engraved."

Arch. Cant., IX (1874), Miscellanea, 299, figs. of two coins of Cunobelin

C. Roach Smith, in NC, 1873, Proc., 7, identified the Roman gold coin as of Augustus (BC 19), and G. Payne, Collectanea Cantiana (1895), 8, said that there were several gold coins of Cunobelin found, but some were dispersed.

This may have been a scattered hoard."



NB see comments by de Jersey - it appears the coin of Augustus was initially misidentified as Claudius.

Parish: Restricted Access
District: Swale
County: Kent
Region: South East
Place known as: Borden
Discovery method: Gardening
Notes: 
Possibly an incomplete record. De Jersey (2015) writes: "Considering the relatively small number of coins involved, this scattered hoard has generated a rather complicated published record. By the time he published his Supplement, Evans (1890, 558, 559) must have forgotten the letter from his friend, since he also listed the aureus as a coin of Claudius, although curiously he refers to the Numismatic Society meeting of 20 February 1873, when it was correctly identified as Augustus. In print, this was corrected by Payne (1905, lxxi) and also by Worsfold (1948, 148). The first two staters of Cunobelin, found in 1873, consisted of one of the linear type (no. 1 in the list below), and one very rare left-facing classic type (no. 10). Although both coins are engraved in the Archaeologia Cantiana report of 1874, the engravings are not of especially good quality and it is difficult to match them with existing examples. The left-facing classic stater might though be CCI 82.0250, now in the National Museum of Wales. The published record of coins from this hoard resumes some seventy years after the first finds. Worsfold (1948, 148) mentions "A further gold coin belonging to this treasure recovered in the same place in 1943" (no. 12, below; also listed by Haselgrove 1978, 133). No further details of this coin seem to be recorded, although it could be one of several staters which have reappeared in the trade more recently (see below)."



He goes on to detail the more recent finds and concludes: "In view of the complexity of these records we can best sum up the Borden finds as a scattered hoard containing a minimum of perhaps ten or eleven staters of Cunobelin, together with an aureus of Augustus; it seems very likely that additional coins have gone unrecorded."