PUŞCULIŢELE ROMANE DESCOPERITE LA APULUM
ROMAN MONEY BOXES DISCOVERED AT APULUM

Summary/Abstract: Archaelogical researches and isolated discoveries scored on the territory of the antique Apulum have brought into spotlight a series of money boxes dating from the Roman epoch, which from a numerical point of view (18) exceed the other discoveries from the territory of Dacia. The largest part of the pieces come from Colonia Aurelia Apulensis (15 pieces), but some money boxes from the territory of Municipium Septimium Apulense (2 pieces) are also known, while for a piece we do not know the precise place where it has been discovered (table. 1/1). Within the 18 money boxes identified at Apulum there are 14 entire pieces. One must observe the fact that one of them has contained a coin, while the others have been found empty. A particular situation has been scored during the peventive archaeological research from the Liber Pater sanctuary where six money boxes have been discovered in a pit and the authors consider it as a votive deposition. Other opinions related to the utility of the money boxes are making a direct referrence to the conservation of the coins necessary for the domestic use or to the coin hoarding. Analyzing the unbroken and the fragmentary money boxes from Apulum we have noticed the fact the largest part of them has been realised with the purpose of preserving the sestertius (8 pieces) since the opening for introducing the coins coincides with the diameter of the sestertius; in these money boxes other smaller coins could have been also introduced. Another category of money boxes has been made for preserving the dinars (4 pieces) and one can finally identify a money box where only coins of small dimensions could have been introduced. In addition to these, there have been identified five fragmentary pieces where the opening for introducing the coins is broken, reason that does not allow to identify the category which they belong to. From the territory of Dacia there are known only three monetary hoardings preserved in the money boxes. The first one has been discovered in the year 1864 at Chergheş and consists of 654 coins; the second one has been discovered in the year 1866, consisting of almost 800 coins (the place where it has been discovered has unknown); the third one has been discovered in the year 1971 at Râmnicu Vâlcea and consists of 23 coins. So almost all the money boxes discovered on the territory of Dacia have been empty.

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