BÍRÓ-SEY KATALIN: COINS FROM IDENTIFIED SITES OF BRIGETIO AND THE QUESTION OF LOCAL CURRENCY / Régészeti Füzetek II/18. (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest, 1977)

I. INTRODUCTION

Coins in Brigetio are also only a few from this period. There are a few of Tiberius, a few more of Claudius, but there are only bronze coins among the scattered material. The first considerable amount of coins dates to the rule of Nero. From this time on though, scattered coins show a growing tendency and continuity both in Brigetio and in Transdanubia. But the hoards do not reflect anything concerning the influx of scattered impressions up to the time of Nero. Hoards with closing dates in the second or third centuries A.D. begin with the coins of Nero. Impressions of pre-Nero emperors very seldom are included in these collections, but it is quite common to find and Anthony triumvor denarius in them. Most of these hoards contain only denarii. According to some scholars the reason for this pre-Nero-eariy-imperatorial lack of denarii is, that the silver content of the denarii have been still quite high, thus it has proved profitable to melt them down in later periods.*

0 There is no question, that among the scattered coins of Brigetio, from the pre-Nero period, there are only sestertii, dupondii, and assis. This early imperatorial lack of denarri shows itself elsewhere also, like in the coin collection of Novaesium as well.** There are a great number of Julius Claudius scattered coins there, with a very few denarri among them, proportionally much less than the number of bronze coins. Among the hoards of Brigetio, only the great gold find (Find No. I) start with the impressions of Nero.*^ When can we speak about the circulation of money in a given area: what amount of coinage indicates it? This can only be decided by considering both the archaeological and the numismatic material, and not by the number of coins, much less by the number of hoards. We know very little about the commercial connections of Pannónia and the Barbaric Sarmathians. Many Sarmathian settlements and cemeteries contain Roman coins and their contemporary imitations. There are even hoards also. Mr. Kőhegyi collected the scattered coins. His statistics show that the relation between the number of coins in Pannónia and in Barbaric areas are different during the different centuries.*3 1st c entury 13 pieces 2nd c entury 166 pieces 3rd c entury 54 pieces 4th century 41 pieces His collection shows only one coin of Valentinian and Valens respectively. There are relativily many imitations in his material. Roman coins have definitely been in use in the Barbaric territories, they could have used them among themselves. This is proven by the imitations they struck. During this research, another problem arose too, namely the fact, that we did not reduce our graphs to a "common denominator" from a coin type, or a value point of view. This problem is not so serious in the case of hoards (Finds No. I-VIII) as it is with the scattered coinage, because the hoards are usually composed of identical material. It is true though that in the hoards of the fourth century A.D. there are different kinds of bronze coins, like follis, maiorina, centenionalis

, but we do not know the differences of their, only that these were slight. The problem is demonstrated at the scattered coins, depending on their state of identification, we can determine their numbers by year or years, thus gaining a yearly average. Our graphs show the number of the yearly average, and not the