Roman lead pigs found in Ceredigion

[Imperial Dave]

https://nation.cymru/news/rare-roman-treasure-found-by-metal-detectorists/

Oink

[Jim Webster]

Buried nicely below plough depth ?

[Ian61]

Very valuable, not just as historical artefact but because lead this old is highly sought after as it will have lost much of the radioactive content it would have had 2000 years ago so has technical value far above lead refined in modern day.
(The Silver pig's by Lindsay Davies was set in South west rather than Wales but another factor in the value Britain had for Rome.)

[Nick Harbud]

So, do these recently discovered ingots contain significant quantities of silver like the ones in Lindsay Davis's work?

 

[Ian61]

So, do these recently discovered ingots contain significant quantities of silver like the ones in Lindsay Davis's work?

 

Possibly BUT it will depend hugely on both the ore seams worked and the actual conditions during extraction. (The 'method' of extraction will be the same each time but that isn't quite the same.)

[Imperial Dave]

Clearly piqued interest 

[Adrian Nayler]

The 'pigs' will probably contain some silver. The presence of silver was likely the whole point. Roman lead was primarily a by-product of silver extraction whatever its other fortuitous uses in plumbing and plate. Previously discovered 'pigs' in Britain have (if I recall correctly from more than 40 years ago) the cast Latin inscription EX ARG (from the silver works/mines). The silver extraction industry was an Imperial monopoly thus explaining Domitian's name in this inscription (letting everyone know they would be about to steal the Emperor's property).

[Nick Harbud]

Surely only the literate ones.... 

[Jim Webster]

Surely only the literate ones.... 

They should have stamped it with his coin portrait