Haynes hoard, BEDFM:1999.235. Image courtesy of The Higgins Museum (Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum)
For our final museum visit, we travelled to the Higgins Museum in Bedford to study the contents of the Haynes hoard. The hoard is particularly exciting as it includes a range of artefacts including finger-rings, spoons and jewellery fragments and over 450 silver coins. The probable container for the hoard also survives, though it is in six pieces.
The Haynes hoard is amongst the latest group of late Roman hoards known in Britain as it contains two VICTORI-A AVGGGG coins issued at the beginning of the fifth century by Constantine III (407-411 CE). These coins are rare in Britain and there are currently less than a dozen known finds. The two coins were minted at Lyon and both display evidence of moderate to heavy clipping (CF3-4). As you can see in the image below, much of the obverse and reverse legend has been removed by clipping and the mint mark (LPDV) is barely visible. The remaining coins in the hoard were issued throughout the period 355-402 CE and the majority of these are very lightly or lightly clipped (CF1). The coins of Arcadius and Honorius from the mint of Milan (395-402 CE) represent more than a quarter of the 440+ finds whilst issues dated to the period 355-364 CE are far fewer in number.
There are three complete spoons in the hoard, though the bowl of one of the spoons is incomplete on the left side and the handle of another appears to have been deliberately bent (see image above). Based on the brief published discussions of the latter spoon, some scholars have suggested that the Haynes hoard may include hacksilver. We were able to clarify in the museum visit that the position and characteristics of the damage to the incomplete spoon shows this has occurred following heavy usage. As you can see in the image below, the wall of the bowl has thinned at the point of contact with a vessel making it more susceptible to breakage. It was used by a left-handed person.
Whilst it is difficult to say for certain whether the deliberately bent spoon handle represents hacksilver, or a failed attempt to make hacksilver, we are more confident that one of the finger-rings represents hacksilver. As you can see in the image at the top of this post, the hoard contains silver and gold rings but it is the broken ring that caught our attention. The ring appears to have been cut open and twisted out of shape, and there is a clear attempt to remove the bezel, which is cut-through about two thirds of the way across.
The hoard also contained some silver necklace clasp components, which were likely valued as a source of bullion, although it is also possible organic components susceptible to decay, such as coral beads, originally made up a complete necklace.