ROMAN OXFORDSHIRE COINS DISPLAY

Coinage remains one of the best represented and most recognisable elements of Roman material culture.

This display will showcase a selection of Roman coins in the Ashmolean collection that were found in Oxfordshire and tell the story of the region from the Roman conquest in 43 CE to the end of Roman Britain, around 410 CE.

Some of the coins reflect everyday life through trade, soldiers’ pay or the collection of taxes. Others tell us about Britain’s position in the empire or served as offerings people made to the gods.

Discover a group of Iron Age gold staters buried in a flint nodule around the time of the Roman invasion, known as the Henley Hoard, and various Roman coins from Claudius I to the end of Roman Britain. These historic finds were discovered in local towns and villages, such as Cowley, Dorchester, Asthall, Horton, Shiplake and Childrey, and add to the evidence for coin use and circulation in Roman Oxfordshire.

Roman coins were an important means of communication. They were carried across the empire in purses, spreading images and messages central to Roman society: religion, politics, the Imperial family, or the empire’s prosperity. As with modern money, most Roman coins also had more straightforward messages, showing exactly who held power.

These coins are not always beautiful objects, but each is a small, powerful voice connecting us to the people of Roman Oxfordshire and their place in the wider Roman world.