Had to pick between a Roman coin and a medieval buckle at a dig site

Last month on a field survey in Shropshire, we found two artifacts in the same trench and the site director said we could only take one for lab analysis since the budget was tight. I went with the coin because I figured it might have a known mint mark that could date the whole layer. Has anyone else had to make a call like that on site and ended up regretting it later?

3 comments

3 Comments

john_hunt213h ago

That coin's a safer bet for dating... but yeah, that buckle wear thing haunts me now.

leebrown16h ago

I read somewhere once that a lot of medieval buckles actually have pretty distinct wear patterns that can tell you about the person who wore them, like if they were right or left handed from which side is worn down. That coin might give you a solid date, but the buckle could have told you a story about the person who dropped it. We had a similar situation on a site near Bath where a buddy picked a brooch over a pot sherd, and he still wonders if the sherd had some rare glaze he missed. Did you ever get any ID on that coin's mint mark?

nathanking13h ago

Did you ever get a chance to check the coin under magnification for any clipped edges? That can tell you a lot about whether it was in circulation during a specific period or maybe even a counterfeit.