Irregular and Counterfeit Coins of Roman Britain Book

New Book 'Irregular and Counterfeit Coins of Roman Britain' by Hugh Williams

By far the most common coins found by detectorists are the Romano-British copies of the third and fourth centuries. They are often described as "barbarous radiates'' or even more disparagingly as "Roman grots': These little bronze offerings have a charm of their own and deserve more than to be condemned to a detectorist's junk box or ignored by numismatists and archaeologists as being unimportant.

The purpose of this book is to highlight some of the more interesting copies from Roman Britain and to show that they too tell a story. They form miniature pieces of art made by local British artisans for use by the Romano-British population. This book aims to illustrate the range of copies found in a way that will be of interest to numismatists, archaeologists, cqllectors and detectorists. I hope that it will foster in the reader an appreciation of an important aspect of the art of Roman Britain, and consign the description ''grots" to never ending banishment.

Hugh Williams has, for nearly fifty years, followed his passionate interest in Roman and Byzantine history specialising in the study of the numismatics of the period. Although his first degree was in Physics, he subsequently completed research degrees in Chemical Crystallography and Roman Archaeology. He has written many articles on numismatics and regularly gives talks in the subject. His book on Carausius, (A Consideration of the Historical' Archaeological and Numismatic Evidence of the Reign) was published by British Archaeological Reports. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society and of the Society of Antiquities.

This new book is available to order now by clicking here