When the late Dr Mead’s collection came up for auction in 1755 it did not include the “Oriuna” denarius of Carausius, that had previously been given to the King of France. What it did have, however, was an aureus of Allectus, lot 110 and reproduced on the plate. The engraving of the coin is true to life showing distinctive flan imperfections, such as the partial border on the left of the reverse. With such detail it was possible to verify, using Burnett’s paper on the coinage of Allectus (BNJ 1984) that the coin now resides in the British Museum collection. By using the online catalogue to the BM collection we can get the accession number, 1864,1128.179, and note that the coin was acquired from Edward Wigan by gift in 1864. The online citation notes Mead as the possible source but, from the Mead engraving, that is not in doubt. Is it possible to trace more of the coins history? The answer is a resounding yes. My original copy of the Mead catalogue is hand annotated with all the buyers names and prices. Lot 110, the aureus, fetched £21/5 and was bought by Lord Charles Cavendish. Cavendish was the youngest son of the 2nd Duke of Devonshire and the father of the scientist Henry Cavendish. The collection, including the Allectus, passed through the family until 1844 when William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, sold the collection through Christies (lot 1239, £10/5). It may be at this time that Wigan purchased the coin.
The online BM record card for the Allectus contains another tantalising piece of information and that is that the Allectus was found at Silchester. This provenance is not in doubt to my mind as the details of the find are recorded in the personal notes of William Stukeley and mention that the ORIENS aureus ended up in the collection of Dr Mead. The entry reads as follows:
“22 December 1748. At the Royal Society. A long account of the old Roman city of Silchester, by Mr Ward, accompanied with a ground plot from an actual survey: and an intire (sic) flat Roman brick. The streets are very visible in the corn in the dry years, especially those two crossing each other from the four gates. He says there’s one place in the city called Silver Hill, remarkable for the many silver coyns (sic) found there, and some gold. One he gave to Dr Mead, of Allectus, finely preserved, reverse ORIENS AVG, exergue ML.”
