A rare coin found by a 73-year-old fisherman in a field near South Brewham, Somerset in England, will be auctioned at Noonans Mayfair in London. It is expected that it will fetch up to 8,000 pounds sterling (almost a million rubles).
bbc.com
The coin features a bust of the usurper Carausius, who commanded the Roman fleet of the Classis Britannica.
As a number of British media clarifies, commercial fisherman Mike Clark from Wimborne has been searching for valuable metals for 52 years. The coin found in Somerset is a denarius issued in 286 AD. Clark said that he had been searching since the morning; in one of the fields the detector found a modern £1 coin, but the next signal showed that there was a silver coin at a depth of six inches.
Noonans coin and artefact specialist Nigel Mills noted that the coin depicts a bust of the usurpath Carausius, who commanded the Roman fleet of the Classis Britannica based in the English Channel. According to him, Emperor Maximian ordered his execution after he suspected him of hiding treasures captured from pirates.
Carausius proclaimed himself Emperor of Great Britain and northern Gaul and made Britain an independent state. The emperor was killed seven years later by his subordinate, the Minister of Finance Allectus.
The coin depicts a shining lion holding a lightning bolt with the letters RLR (Rodeunt Saturnia Regna from the collection of poems “Eclogues” by the poet Virgil) – this means: “return of the kingdom of Saturn.”
Clark said he would split the amount received for the rarity at auction with the landowner.
Source: rodina-history.ru
