Irregular & Counterfeit Coins of Roman Britain

Illegitimate legitimacy, the story of Romano-British counterfeiting

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, collectors and detectorists – this book aims to 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.