Golden find at Northumberland Roman fort

[Brianmo]

Golden find at Northumberland Roman fort after 40 years of digging

A star find by archaeologists at a Northumberland Roman fort has conjured up emotions of delight and despair.

After more than 40 years of digging, the first gold coin has been unearthed at Vindolanda.

The coin equates to more than half a year’s wages for a Roman soldier, which would have meant despair for whoever lost it.

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[Jimmytheferret]

I think some of the historians or archaeologists seem to be way out when it comes to how much these coins were worth. A Roman soldier would probably be getting between 1 and 2 denarii a day, and a gold aureus like this was equivalent to 25 denarii. That would make it around 12 to 25 days' pay and certainly nowhere near 6 months. There was a similar story that I read recently concerning a medieval silver penny that had been found (think it may have been at the site of Bannockburn) and the article was saying that it was a huge sum of money to have been lost then, whereas it was probably half a day's pay for somebody.

[Ghost]

First gold coin my a**e bri.
Much has been pillaged from that site.