A part from a brief period spanning around two generations from about AD 286 to AD 325, there was no official coinage struck in the Roman province of Britain. Coinage was either imported from the far away capital, Rome, or, later, from one of the regional mints that sprang up in the third century (see Coin Collector, Issues 14−15). Some irregular coins, the so-called ‘barbarous radiates’ were undoubtedly produced in Britain, but they were an unofficial coinage of necessity and not the work of a state mint (see Coin Collector, Issue 3). It used to be thought that some coins such as the ‘BRITANNIA’ asses of Antoninus Pius (Figure 1) were struck by a travelling mint operating in the province, but we now know that these too were struck in Rome, although they were undoubtedly targeted at Britain; clearly most if not all were intended for distribution here.
CREATION OF THE MINT
With the elevation of the rebel emperor, Carausius, in 286, the lack of a mint became a real problem. Carausius could hardly rely on a supply of money from the legitimate emperors,
