Help Desk

The coin is a Roman denarius, which was struck for Marcus Aurelius when he was Caesar under Antoninus Pius

The weakness in some areas means the available information has to be combined to identify the mint

As I’ve said before, the amount of information that can be gleaned from a cut halfpenny depends on how the coin was cut

All in all, this is one of the best pennies of its type I have seen as a detecting find

Stephen Tate said he found this coin on a beach in East Sussex. It’s a highly unusual beach find, as will become clear when I provide a detailed description.

Up to 1860 the penny and its fractions were made of copper. From 1860 onwards the penny and its fraction were made of bronze. For me there is a great mystery attached to this changeover.

Lots of Victorian sixpences and shillings turn up as detecting finds but not many halfcrowns.

On the face is a crouching creature, which stands out well from the gilded background

Steve has been very lucky to find this coin, for it is a denarius of Otho

Several different busts appear on Edward VI profile shilling and most are very similar to each other, so they can cause much confusion.