On a discovery of Roman Coins in the Parish of Little Malvern,
Worcestershire.

Read before the Numismatic Society, 27th January 1848

On Monday the 15th August as Mr Commissioner Mayne and his sons were out on a walk, they were induced to go in search of some geological remains, into a small quarry, on the side of the road leading from Little Malvern
to Ledbury. Whilst overturning stones, Mr Cox. Mayne came unexpectedly upon a considerable number of second brass Roman coins, which were lying, as appeared to him, loosely thrown together, a few inches under the surface at the top of the hill itself.

He immediately collected as many as he could without difficulty lay handson, amounting to about 200.

The news of this discovery rapidly spread in all directions, and people flocked from the village to the spot, and were
rewarded by obtaining a few more specimens (probably the same as Mr. Mayne had previously exhumed), before
night-fall.

The following morning a man of the name of Fletcher came across from the Parish of Colwall, on the Herefordshire hills, and on searching more closely, and turning over the soil, discovered another collection of similar coins enclosed in a light-red-coloured earthern pot, of undoubted Roman fabric, which he sold shortly afterwards,
together with the coins, fifty in number, to Mr.Warden, one of the directors of the East India Company. Some portions of the pot, which has been much shattered, I imagine in the process of extraction, have been preserved, and are to night, by the kindness of Mr. Warden, exhibited to the Society. It will be observed, that there still adhered to the sides of the pot, some of the verdigris which covered the coins when found in it. It may be presumed, therefore, that the whole number of coins thus discovered, did not fall far short of 300: for besides
those I have enumerated, which have been placed in my hands for the purpose of description, I saw some twenty or thirty in the hands of the gentleman and cottagers in the neighbourhood; and the post-master of the village informed me that for some days after the discovery, coins were continually passing in letters through the post office. I found, on going down to Malvern, that it was very difficult to obtain a clear and satisfactory account of the order in which the discoveries took place, as almost every one to whom I addressed myself had a different story to
relate. I believe, however, that, on the whole, the above is as correct a version as it is possible to procure; while the appearance itself of the coins goes far to confirm the truth of the narration. It will be observed, for instance, that those which were turned up, and which I saw myself at Malvern, were covered with soft green arugo which peeled off immediately on being touched by the point of a penknife; the result probably of exposure for a long period in the open ground , but at the same time in a dry pebbly soil; while those on the otherhand, which
were found in a pot, had to a great degree resisted the effect of the weather, and retained the metallic lustre and brightness of the tinning, which most if not all of them had originally undergone.

Of these coins I have been able personally to examine about two hundred; and I will now lay before the Society the results of that examination, at the same time exhibiting some specimens from the hoard, including those first discovered by Mr Cox Mayne and those subsequently placed at my disposal by Mr Warden, with this remark, that so far as I know, no coins have been found except of the five emperors Diocletianus, Maximianus, Hercules, Constantius Chlorus, Galerius Maximianus and Maximinus Daza, that they fall therefore within the period between AD 286-311. They are all of the size called second brass, and in excellent preservation; and the larger part of them are so sharp and well defined, that they could hardly have been in circulation.

I have arranged them first chronologically according to the succession of the emperors, and secondly according to the types of the obverses and reverses.

In order to avoid the unneccessary space which I should have been obliged to take up to describe each coin separetely, and given every reverse with its appropriate obverse, side by side, I have adopted the somewhat novel plan of mentioning first, all the legends of the obverses, then all the lengends of the reverses, together with the letters in the field, connecting the two together by Greek Letters, which will refer from one to the other. I am
aware that it may be objected, that by this means some inaccuracies may arise, and some little peculiarities of individual coins may pass unnoticed: but I have preferred running this risk, to extending individual description
to a length which would be wearisome without producing any compensating result; nor indeed in the class of coins of that value to give me any warrant for such extension; for beyond the local interest of their
discovery, they do not possess much value, either from their scarcity, or
from any history on which they throw light.