COIN FROM ORANMORE

Pictured above is the coin recovered from the site at Oranmore – you can read the introduction to the excavation in this post: http://www.mooregroup.ie/2011/02/excavations-at-oranmore/

Found with burial 1, the coin was located close to the left hand of the skeleton indicating that it was deliberately placed with the individual at the time of burial.  After conservation some letters including ‘VMADIV’ were visible on one surface of the coin; however the coin was too badly worn to discern the type of coin but is likely to be a ‘hammered’ coin.  ‘Hammered’ is the term given to a type of coin produced in Europe, the Middle East and the New World between about 600 AD and 1700 AD. Hammered coins were made by manually striking a coin blank (usually of silver or gold) between two hand cut dies. Hammered coins are normally quite thin, exhibit uneven striking and often have striking cracks at their edges. The coin from Area 1 exhibits this uneven striking and has cracks along the edge; it is also is very thin and made of silver.  It is likely that the Pairc an Clochar coin dates to the later period of production of hammered coins from the Late Medieval period.  A search of the website www.irishcoinage.com revealed a similar coin to the one found in Area 1, the letters ‘VMADIV’ are discernible on one side of the coin, this corresponded with an inscription found on another hammered coin a shilling of Elizabeth I’s ‘Fine Issue’ of 1561.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 4th, 2011 at 2:42 pm. It is filed under About Archaeology, Finds, Resources, Virtual Museum and tagged with artefact, Coin, Elizabeth I, finds, galway, Oranmore. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.