ROMAN coins found under south Oxfordshire farmland are set to be entrusted to the county’s museums.

A total of 16 coins, some dating back as far as 218 AD, were found last June by people using metal detectors.

And Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter this week ruled that the find was treasure, meaning it has to be offered for sale to the Oxfordshire Museums Service.

Mr Salter told a hearing on Wednesday that the coins constituted treasure by law because of their age and the fact they were found as part of a hoard.

British Museum Roman coins expert Richard Abdy said hoarding was the most effective way of saving money in Roman times.

He said: “There was no deposit banking in the ancient and medieval world so your only option would be to hide it somewhere, where nobody else knows to dig it up.

“The trouble with that is if something then happens to you, the hoard becomes abandoned.”

Of the coins found, some were silver Denarii, a common Roman coin, and others were a copper alloy coins called Radiates.

All of the coins date from between the rule of Elagabalus (218 to 222 AD) and Victorinus (269 to 271 AD).

Mr Abdy said Denarii was the main unit of Roman currency up until the third century, and changed in value over quite a short period of time.

He said: “A good way of working it out is by soldiers’ wages. At the beginning of the period they would have been paid about 300 Denarii a year, but by the middle of the third century we’re looking at 1,800 a year.”

He said the find wasn’t unusual, and was small in comparison to many hoards found in the UK.

During the hearing, Mr Salter said he would not identify the finders or the find location, because it was a “sensitive site”.

Now it has been identified as treasure, the hoard will be valued before it is then offered to the museums service to buy.