Kottayam coin hoard
| Kottayam hoard | |
|---|---|
| Material | Gold |
| Size | 74 surviving coins, possibly hundreds with maximum 8000 coins |
| Created | 211-217 AD |
| Discovered | Kottayam (present-day Kerala, India) |
| Present location | Government Museum, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Identification | 18598 |
| Culture | Roman Empire |
| https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/18598 | |
The Kottayam coin hoard refers to a Roman coin hoard consisting of a cache of aurei discovered in the vicinity of Kottayam, Kannur (Cannanore), in present-day northern Kerala, southern India.[1]
Discovered by locals around 1846/47, many of the coins were processed and melted by local jewelers, although surviving specimens were acquired by the maharaja (the ruler) of the neighbouring state of Travancore. The surviving specimens, numbering 80–90, with 74 documented aurei were split between the Government Museum, Madras, The Asiatic Society or the Indian Museum, Kolkata, and possibly some private collections.[2][3] The most recent coin, an aureus minted by Caracalla, suggests that the hoard was deposited sometime between 211 and 217 AD.[2][3]
Discovery
The coins from the Kottayam hoard were first studied by numismatist Robert Caldwell (1851).[4]
In the early 1850s, in a report called Remarks on Some Lately Discovered Roman Gold Coins, penned by Captain Heber Drury, a cache of Roman aurei, many of which were in uncirculated condition, was found in Kannur (Malabar District, Madras Presidency) bearing the image of Augustus, circulating amongst the locals and laborers around the town in 1847.[5] They were traded for anywhere between 1–14 rupees or bartered away for a day's worth of rice.[2][3] Jewelers and wealthier locals who noted the high purity of the coins melted some of them for jewelry.[2][3]
Though the exact provenance of the coin deposit was heavily kept secret, further inquiry of the finds traced the discoverers to a Saint Thomas Christian community in Kottayam who were gold panning along the Valapattanam River. While soil was getting cleared away on a small hill by the Arabian Sea along the river, a brass/bronze vessel containing mostly gold coins, along with spilled coins, was discovered. The amount was described as "no less than five cooly-loads" (which theoretically equates to approximately 8000 aurei).[3][6]
Coins
Specimens from the Kottayam find appear to have remained available in local markets for many years, both before and after the hoard attracted scholarly attention.[7]
Some of the surviving coins that were found ultimately went into the collections of Marthanda Varma II, the ruler of the neighbouring princely state of Travancore, and Travancore Resident Major General William Cullen, of which 80–90 specimens were catalogued.[6] With entry into the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire database by the University of Oxford, 74 individual specimens are attributed, out of the estimated "hundreds" recovered from the brass vessel and its spillage.[3] The Kottayam coins, which ended up in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, after being originally donated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Resident Cullen, were eventually lost.[7]
It is unclear whether any of the coins were slashed (deliberately marked with a chisel), but there is little evidence to indicate that they were.[8]
| Portrait | Mint | Quantity | Roman Imperial Coinage Variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augustus | Lugdunum | 5 | RIC II 172, 198, 200, 206ff, 225 |
| unmarked | 4 | ||
| Gaius Marius | Rome | 3 | RIC II 13, 17, 25 |
| Tiberius | unmarked | 25 | |
| Lugdunum | 3 | RIC II 3, 23, 25, 27, 29 | |
| Claudius | Rome | 12 | RIC II 1, 11, 15, 25, 27, 31, 33, 40, 51, 54, 63, 80 |
| Drusus the Elder | Rome | 3 | RIC II 71, 76, 78 |
| Antonia Minor | Rome | 2 | RIC II, 65, 67 |
| Nero | Rome | 9 | RIC II 1, 6, 14(?), 19, 21(?), 23, 25(?), 27(?), 35 |
| unmarked | 6 | ||
| Divus Claudius (Nero) | Rome | 1 | RIC II 4 |
| Caracalla | unmarked | 1 | |
| Total | 74 |
Significance
The Kottayam hoard is one of the largest discovery of Roman coins in southern India.[9][10] In addition to other finds along India and Kerala, it is seen by economists as an attestation to the value of Roman currency in Indo-Roman trade relations, part of a rich array of additional finds in the region, ranging from Arab to Chinese coinage.[2][11] Additional Roman coins attesting to Kerala's history as a trading hub were found in villages and towns such as Eyyal, Poonjar, and Valuvally.[11][10]
References
- ^ Turner, Paula J. (2016) [1989]. Roman Coins from India. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-90585-323-9.
- ^ a b c d e "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Currency Empire". The Economist. 26 March 2026. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Hoard Details 18598 (Kottayam 1847)". Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire. University of Oxford. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
- ^ Turner, Paula J. (2016) [1989]. Roman Coins from India. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 2 and 62-63. ISBN 978-0-90585-323-9.
- ^ Thurston, Edgar (1894). Coins Catalogue No. 2: Roman, Indo-Portuguese, and Ceylon (2nd ed.). Madras Government Museum; Government Press. pp. 8–9.
- ^ a b Turner, Paula J. (1989). Roman Coins from India. Royal Numismatic Society. pp. 2 and 8. ISBN 978-0-905853-23-9. OCLC 21489175.
- ^ a b Turner, Paula J. (1989). Roman Coins from India. Royal Numismatic Society. pp. 8-9 and 96. ISBN 978-0-905853-23-9. OCLC 21489175.
- ^ Turner, Paula J. (2016) [1989]. Roman Coins from India. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-90585-323-9.
- ^ McLaughlin, Raoul (2014). The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India. Pen and Sword Books. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-1-78346-381-7.
- ^ a b Turner, Paula J. (2016) [1989]. Roman Coins from India. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 118-119 and 123. ISBN 978-0-90585-323-9.
- ^ a b Sumitha, S. S. (2020). "Rereading the History of Coins in Kerala" (PDF). Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology. 8 (1). Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala: 336–344. ISSN 2347-5463.