Greek Imperial issue for Commodus
The copper coin in the image above was found by a metal-detectorist at a metal-detectign rally last month. Keith Sugden, Curator of Numismatics has identified it as a “Greek Imperial” coin (i.e. a Roman coin struck in one of the Greek cities of the empire). It shows the Emperor Commodus (177-192 AD) and the piece was produced in Corcyra (modern Corfu). The god in the shrine on the reverse is Agreus.
The god in the shrine.
As Keith himself has shown with his publication of a hoard of Alexandrian tetradrachms found in Manchester, such coins did not normally circulate in Roman Britain and we might speculate upon the circumstances which led to a Greek Imperial issue of the island of Corfu ending up in North-West Britain. Was it perhaps brought back to the North-West by a soldier returning from service in the Eastern Mediterranean after the First or the Second World War? Such discoveries have been documented in the past.
Ancient Worlds 