AlbaTinker204 at 13:03, 7 May 2026

2026-05-07T13:03:15Z

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{{Short description|Imperial Roman gold coin treasure trove in Kerala, India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name = Kottayam hoard
| image = Claudio, moneta d'oro con la nemesi, 41-54 dc.jpg
| image_caption = [[Aureus]] of [[Claudius]], reverse depicting the goddess [[Nemesis]], [[Government Museum, Chennai]]
| material = [[Gold]]
| size = 74 surviving coins, possibly hundreds with maximum 8000 coins
| created = 211-217 AD
| discovered = [[Kottayam-Malabar|Kottayam]] (present-day [[Kerala]], [[India]])
| location = [[Government Museum, Chennai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]
| culture = [[Roman Empire]]
| id = 18598
| website = https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/18598
}}

The '''Kottayam coin hoard''' refers to a [[Roman coin]] [[hoard]] consisting of a cache of [[Aureus|aurei]] discovered in the vicinity of [[Kottayam-Malabar|Kottayam]], [[Kannur|Kannur (Cannanore)]], in present-day northern [[Kerala]], southern [[India]].<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/_/0bVmDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO1_jetZ-UAxUKbmwGHfztBusQre8FegQIChAK |title=Roman Coins from India |publisher=Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-90585-323-9 |pages=62-63 |orig-year=1989}}</ref>

Discovered by locals around 1846/47, many of the coins were processed and melted by local jewelers, although surviving specimens were acquired by the maharaja (the ruler) of the neighbouring state of [[Travancore]]. The surviving specimens, numbering 80–90, with 74 documented aurei were split between the [[Government Museum, Chennai|Government Museum, Madras]], [[The Asiatic Society|The Asiatic Society or the Indian Museum, Kolkata]], and possibly some private collections.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> The most recent coin, an aureus minted by [[Caracalla]], suggests that the hoard was deposited sometime between 211 and 217 AD.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Currency Empire |url=https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2026/03/26/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-currency-empire |access-date=2026-03-28 |work=[[The Economist]] |issn=0013-0613 |url-access=subscription |date=26 March 2026}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Hoard Details 18598 (Kottayam 1847) |url=https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/18598 |access-date=2026-03-28 |website=Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire |publisher=[[University of Oxford]] }}</ref>

== Discovery ==
The coins from the Kottayam hoard were first studied by numismatist Robert Caldwell (1851).<ref name=":422">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/_/0bVmDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO1_jetZ-UAxUKbmwGHfztBusQre8FegQIChAK |title=Roman Coins from India |publisher=Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-90585-323-9 |pages=2 and 62-63 |orig-year=1989}}</ref>

In the early 1850s, in a report called ''Remarks on Some Lately Discovered Roman Gold Coins'', penned by Captain [[Heber Drury]], a cache of [[Aureus|Roman aurei]], many of which were in [[Uncirculated coin|uncirculated condition]], was found in [[Kannur]] (Malabar District, Madras Presidency) bearing the image of [[Augustus]], circulating amongst the locals and laborers around the town in 1847.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thurston |first=Edgar |author-link=Edgar Thurston |title=Coins Catalogue No. 2: Roman, Indo-Portuguese, and Ceylon |year=1894 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Government Museum, Chennai|Madras Government Museum]]; Government Press |pages=[[iarchive:dli.csl.8075/page/n4|8–9]] }}</ref> They were traded for anywhere between 1–14 [[Indian rupee|rupees]] or bartered away for a day's worth of rice.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> [[Jeweler]]s and wealthier locals who noted the high purity of the coins melted some of them for jewelry.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Though the exact provenance of the coin deposit was heavily kept secret, further inquiry of the finds traced the discoverers to a [[Saint Thomas Christians|Saint Thomas Christian]] community in [[Kottayam-Malabar|Kottayam]] who were [[gold panning]] along the [[Valapattanam River]]. While soil was getting cleared away on a small hill by the [[Arabian Sea]] along the river, a [[Brass|brass/bronze vessel]] containing mostly gold coins, along with spilled coins, was discovered. The amount was described as "no less than five [[Coolie|cooly]]-loads" (which theoretically equates to approximately 8000 aurei).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=http://archive.org/details/romancoinsfromin00turn |url-access=registration |title=Roman Coins from India |date=1989 |publisher=[[Royal Numismatic Society]] |isbn=978-0-905853-23-9 |oclc=21489175 |pages=2 and 8}}</ref>

== Coins ==
Specimens from the Kottayam find appear to have remained available in local markets for many years, both before and after the hoard attracted scholarly attention.<ref name=":32" />

Some of the surviving coins that were found ultimately went into the collections of [[Marthanda Varma II]], the ruler of the neighbouring princely state of [[Travancore]], and Travancore Resident [[William Cullen (Resident)|Major General William Cullen]], of which 80–90 specimens were catalogued.<ref name=":3" /> With entry into the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire database by the [[University of Oxford]], 74 individual specimens are attributed, out of the estimated "hundreds" recovered from the brass vessel and its spillage.<ref name=":1" /> The Kottayam coins, which ended up in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, after being originally donated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Resident Cullen, were eventually lost.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=http://archive.org/details/romancoinsfromin00turn |url-access=registration |title=Roman Coins from India |date=1989 |publisher=[[Royal Numismatic Society]] |isbn=978-0-905853-23-9 |oclc=21489175 |pages=8-9 and 96}}</ref>

It is unclear whether any of the coins were slashed (deliberately marked with a chisel), but there is little evidence to indicate that they were.<ref name=":4222">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/_/0bVmDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO1_jetZ-UAxUKbmwGHfztBusQre8FegQIChAK |title=Roman Coins from India |publisher=Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-90585-323-9 |pages=62-63 |orig-year=1989}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+Catalogue of the Aurei from the Kottayam Hoard<ref name=":1" />
!Portrait
!Mint
!Quantity
![[Roman Imperial Coinage|Roman Imperial Coinage Variants]]
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[Augustus]]
|[[Lugdunum]]
|5
|RIC II 172, 198, 200, 206ff, 225
|-
|unmarked
|4
|
|-
|[[Gaius Marius]]
|[[Rome]]
|3
|RIC II 13, 17, 25
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[Tiberius]]
|unmarked
|25
|
|-
|Lugdunum
|3
|RIC II 3, 23, 25, 27, 29
|-
|[[Claudius]]
|Rome
|12
|RIC II 1, 11, 15, 25, 27, 31, 33, 40, 51, 54, 63, 80
|-
|[[Drusus the Elder]]
|Rome
|3
|RIC II 71, 76, 78
|-
|[[Antonia Minor]]
|Rome
|2
|RIC II, 65, 67
|-
| rowspan="2" |[[Nero]]
|Rome
|9
|RIC II 1, 6, 14(?), 19, 21(?), 23, 25(?), 27(?), 35
|-
|unmarked
|6
|
|-
|Divus Claudius (Nero)
|Rome
|1
|RIC II 4
|-
|[[Caracalla]]
|unmarked
|1
|
|-
|'''Total'''
|
|74
|
|}

== Significance ==
The Kottayam hoard is one of the largest discovery of Roman coins in southern India.<ref name="mclaughlin2014">{{Cite book |last=McLaughlin |first=Raoul |title=The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean: The Ancient World Economy and the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia and India |publisher=[[Pen and Sword Books]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-78346-381-7 |pages=[[iarchive:romanempireindia0000mcla/page/188|188–189]] }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Paula J. |url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/_/0bVmDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO1_jetZ-UAxUKbmwGHfztBusQre8FegQIChAK |title=Roman Coins from India |publisher=Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-90585-323-9 |pages=118-119 and 123 |orig-year=1989}}</ref> In addition to other finds along India and [[Kerala]], it is seen by economists as an attestation to the value of Roman currency in [[Indo-Roman trade relations]], part of a rich array of additional finds in the region, ranging from Arab to [[Cash (Chinese coin)|Chinese coinage]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> Additional Roman coins attesting to Kerala's history as a trading hub were found in villages and towns such as [[Eyyal]], [[Poonjar]], and Valuvally.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Sumitha |first=S. S. |title=Rereading the History of Coins in Kerala |url=https://www.heritageuniversityofkerala.com/JournalPDF/Volume8.1/15.pdf |journal=Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology |volume=8 |issue=1 |year=2020 |issn=2347-5463 |publisher=Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala|pages=336-344}}</ref><ref name=":4" />

== References ==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:1847 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Ancient Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:History of Kottayam district]]
[[Category:Roman-Indian relations]]
[[Category:Treasure troves in India]]

Kottayam coin hoard - Revision history

AlbaTinker204 at 13:03, 7 May 2026