The Ihnasyah Hoard Re-Examined

PRIOR TO THE OPENING of the Royal Ontario Museum in 1912 the late Dr. C. T. Currelly, the first Director of Archaeology, had travelled extensively in Europe and the Near East gathering the nucleus of the present collections.' Among his acquisitions was a large hoard, or part of a hoard, of Roman copper coins of the Constantinian Dynasty dating from between the years 324 and 346, which he purchased at Ihnasyah in Egypt.2 These coins were examined by the late Professor J. G. Milne and his findings published in 1914 in the 7ournal International d'A'rcheologie Numismatique.3 In his article he discussed a total of 6476 coins, which is slightly less than the 6527 coins included in the hoard as it was arranged for display by Dr. Currelly not long after the Museum opened. The discrepancy is almost exactly accounted for by the ten fragments and the 36 coins from other periods which are included in the hoard. Although the coins were purchased in three lots, both these authorities felt that they formed part of the same find and constituted all or part of a hoard-a contention which is supported by their close dating and the fact that all have the same general patination. The Museum also possesses some further coins dating from the 324-346 period which Dr. Currelly did not include in the hoard when he placed it on display. These coins, which frequently have a very different patination, are not examined either in this paper or in the article by Milne. At that time the field of late Roman numismatics was badly neglected; the system of classification used by Milne has since been considerably revised, the dating made more precise, and the variations in the details of the types used at the different mints examined extensively. The results of these studies are now available in a new conspectus prepared by P. V. Hill, J. P. C. Kent, and R. A. G. Carson of the British Museum, in which they reclassify the copper coinage from 324 to 498.4 With the

Archaeology · Geography · Hoard · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Geology