This display will showcase a selection of Roman coins in the Ashmolean collection that were found in Oxfordshire and tell the story of the region from the Roman conquest in 43 CE to the end of Roman Britain, around 410 CE.

Coinage remains one of the best represented and most recognisable elements of Roman material culture.

Some of the coins reflect everyday life through trade, soldiers’ pay, or the collection of taxes. Others tell us about Britain’s position in the empire or served as offerings people made to the gods.

Discover a group of Iron Age gold staters buried in a flint nodule around the time of the Roman invasion, known as the Henley Hoard, and various Roman coins from Claudius I to the end of Roman Britain. These historic finds were discovered in local towns and villages, such as Cowley, Dorchester, Asthall, Horton, Shiplake and Childrey, and add to the evidence for coin use and circulation in Roman Oxfordshire.

Free