Coins and coin hoards have not a few attractions for archaeologists, historians and collectors. One of the most important is that they are datable and can not only fix a point in time when a site was occupied or abandoned but also may tell us something of their relationship to events in the existing historical record.
The BBC News website reports on the purchase by Doncaster Museum of the Norton hoard of Roman coins which was found at that village, a few miles north of Doncaster, in 2018.
The large and substantial hoard is of silver coins which were apparently buried in 230. There is no obvious reason for their being hidden.
Norton lies on the well drained fertile soils of the magnesium limestone scarp north of Doncaster, and this is not the first Roman coin hoard to have been found in the area. This may well suggest this was a prosperous farming area in the Roman period.
Other coin hoards from the area include one at Campsmount in the neighbouring village of Campsall in the earlier nineteenth century, and slightly further to the north two hoards from Cridling Stubbs and Womersley in 1967 and 2011. The first of these is described by Wikipedia at Cridling Stubbs Hoard
The article has one mistake - whilst Doncaster ( Danum ) was a Roman fort and town Pontefract was not then an urban settlement in the Roman era, lying as it did just south of the fort and town at Castleford ( Legiolium ).
The report about the Norton coins can be read at Hoard of Roman silver coins bought by council
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