A HOARD of Roman coins found in a county field and a Tudor silver-gilt pin fragment discovered near Raglan have been declared treasure.

Fourteen late-Roman silver coins were discovered by detectorist Colin Price buried in a ploughed field near Caerwent, the site of a Roman town.

And the pin fragment find was uncovered with a metal detector by treasure hunter Darren Jessett in pastureland at Llantilio Crossenny, between Monmouth and Abergavenny.

They were among three finds declared treasure by Naomi Rees, Assistant Coroner for Gwent, last Thursday, alongside a medieval silver-gilt finger ring found in rough grassland in Rudry, Caerphilly.

The Tudor pin is a spherical head from a ball-headed pin and has a decoration of twisted wire forming four circlets within a larger circle.

Only the upper half of the ball-head survives and traces of a seam joining to the missing lower half is visible in the underside of the fragment.

The decorative style of the pin fragment identifies it as being of 16th century date.

Abergavenny Museum has expressed an interest in acquiring the pin for its collection, after it has been independently valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee.

The hoard of late-Roman silver ‘siliquae’ coins were struck between 360 AD and 402 AD, towards the end of the Roman occupation of Britain.

Alastair Willis, Senior Curator of Numismatics and the Welsh Economy at National Museum Wales, which intends to acquire the coins for Caerleon’s National Roman Legion Museum, said: “The hoard is an unusual and significant new find for Wales, the first hoard of siliquae to have been discovered here and sheds new light on events in and around Caerwent at the end of Roman rule in Britain.”

All the coins have had their edges removed, a process known as clipping, which is generally thought to have mainly occurred from 407 AD until the mid-5th century.

The supply of coins to Britain ceased in 402 and the usurper Constantine III took the remaining Roman legions with him to the Continent five years later, leaving Britain defenceless to raids by the Saxons, Scotti and Picts.

With no new coins or bullion coming in from the Continent, the edges of silver coins were clipped off, probably to be melted down and minted as new coins based on older official designs.

This hoard differs from most siliquae hoards in Britain in that most of the coins date to before AD 388, which possibly indicates that the supply of silver coins to South Wales was restricted, perhaps due to economic or political reasons.

The hoard is also notable for its two siliquae of the Emperor Magnus Maximus, who is popularly linked to Macsen Wledig in the Mabinogion.

He was seen as a mythological founding father of early Welsh kingdoms, and also features in the Dafydd Iwan’s song Yma o Hyd, which has become a popular football anthem and was sung following Wales’ victory over Ukraine in the Football World Cup qualifier in June.

The silver-gilt finger ring was discovered by Graham Carew while metal detecting on a field under rough pasture in December 2020.

The ring has clasped hands at the base of the hoop and a series of seven repeating upper-case letter S’s around the hoop, which were once filled with black enamel, traces of which survive. These stylistic features indicate the ring dates to the 15th or early 16th centuries.

Dr Mark Redknap of National Museum Wales said the ring imitated the S-chain signified support for the Lancastrian dynasty during the Wars of the Roses, and the clasped hands signified fidelity.