Roman coins on Alderney

[Roman Collector]

"An archaeological dig has uncovered two ancient Roman coins, among other remains, on a small island that measures just 3 miles in length.

"The coins are a silver 'Antoninianus' dated to A.D. 255 that depicts the short-lived teenage ruler Caesar Valerian II, and a bronze featuring an image of the emperor Valens from A.D. 364-367.

"The coins came to light during an ongoing excavation of what appears to be a large Roman building located near Longis Bay on Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, which are British crown dependencies but not part of the United Kingdom. The archipelago lies just off the northern coast of France in the English Channel, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Great Britain from the European mainland.

"The excavation—being conducted by Dig Alderney, a charitable association run by volunteers—is helping to shed light on the Roman history of Alderney, which is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The recently uncovered coins represent two of the "star finds" from the excavation."

You may read more at Newsweek here.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Very interesting - thanks!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

The first picture sure isn't Valens. Interesting, though.

[Orange Julius]

Yeah first one looks like Constantius I as Caesar.

[lrbguy]

10 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

The first picture sure isn't Valens. Interesting, though.

When you go to the page linked by RC you find two different bronze coins in the pics, with the disclaimer that the wrong bronze coin is shown in the picture in this thread.  The pic they intended is this:

Sadly, they don't show the reverse.

[Marsyas Mike]

Thanks for sharing this, @Roman Collector.  By coincidence I am reading a piece on Aldernay in Harper's that involves digging in the dirt - I haven't finished the article but there are claims that when the Nazis occupied the island, that it functioned as another site for the Holocaust.  That Russian slave laborers were worked to death there is known, but some say Jews were transported there as well.  There's modern cable-Internet controversies going on too - I am not in any way mentioning this to be political, just that Aldernay seems to be a historically busy place, though small.

This has a paywall, but here's the Harper's piece:

https://harpers.org/archive/2024/03/the-holocaust-angle-rebecca-panovka/