It’s still a big thrill to unearth a piece of imperial history from the soil, even when time has worn its grand design down to a whisper. This complete copper alloy Roman coin dates to the House of Constantine (AD 307\u2013361), a transformative era that saw the rise of Christianity and the founding of Constantinople.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Found just south of Salisbury (known to the Romans as Sorviodunum)\u2014this struck coin weighs 7.28 g and measures 24.5 mm in diameter. It is classified as a nummus (plural: nummi), a Latin term meaning simply “coin.” Archaeologists use the word to describe the low-value, copper-alloy currency minted in vast quantities during the late Empire. In terms of daily purchasing power, its closest modern equivalent would be a low-denomination pocket change coin, like a 5p or 10p piece\u2014the kind of humble money everyday citizens used to buy a loaf of bread or a cup of cheap wine.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Though categorised as extremely worn, it still carries the unmistakable silhouette of Roman authority. The obverse features a right-facing bust adorned with a laureate or pearl diadem, paired with a fragmented inscription reading [\u2026]NST[\u2026]\u2014a surviving echo of the Constantinian name. Unfortunately, centuries in the earth have rendered the reverse description and mint mark completely illegible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This coin serves as a profound reminder that we do not need mint-condition showstoppers to connect with history. Even the dullest, most worn coin can still shed a bit of light onto our growing knowledge of other times and other empires. This humble piece of copper is a vital data point, mapping ancient commerce and proving that even a heavily circulated, obscured fragment can cast a knowing light on Britain’s deep Roman past.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Constantine Nummus ID: WILT-A316E1 It’s still a big thrill to unearth a piece of imperial history from the soil, even when time has worn its grand design down to a whisper. This complete copper alloy Roman coin dates to the House of Constantine (AD 307\u2013361), a transformative era that saw the rise of Christianity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-potd","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WILT-A316E1_67d989da0b184.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pDxlf-3Mt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14537"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14553,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14537\/revisions\/14553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vrharbor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/WILT-A316E1_67d989da0b184.jpg\")
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n