9 treasures in 9 days- Day 6
Hampshire Cultural Trust's Curatorial Liaison Manager, Ross shines the spotlight on one archaeological object a day throughout the Festival of Archaeology.
These objects were reported and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, purchased from the Crown through the Treasure reporting process and accessioned into the collections cared for by HCT. With Hampshire Cultural Trust purchasing them, the objects are now available for displays at our museums and for research.
Object 6
Object: coin
Period: Anglo-Saxon
Date: 600 – 675 AD
Gold coin discovered in St Mary Bourne parish, Hampshire by a metal detectorist. Tremiss (meaning third of a unit) is a gold coin that was first minted in the late Roman period but also used by early medieval states in Europe. Although original in that it was struck in the 7th century the coin is believed to be a copy of a Merovingian original. It includes inscriptions that are intended to suggest an origin in Maastricht. The Merovingians ruled most of present day France and parts of western Germany in the immediate post Roman period. However the inscriptions are partial and blundered and the die of the coin is unusually crude, which is what suggests a copy. This is a very rare find and shows how the newly formed European states that grew out of the failing Western Roman Empire were aspiring to connect to the former empire.
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