The discovery of a coin appears to confirm the brief rule of Domitianus, a mystery Roman emperor whose very existence had been doubted, according to a museum curator.

"There are only two fleeting references to Domitianus in historical sources as a high-ranking army officer punished for treason by the Emperor Aurelian," said Richard Abdy, curator of Roman coins at the British Museum.

"But neither identify him as a rebel emperor. Only the archaeological evidence of this coin shows that he was indeed emperor and provides us with a face to go with history's forgotten ruler."

So little was known about Domitianus that some experts doubted he existed.

"The new discovery makes it certain both that this shadowy claimant to the imperial throne existed, and that he mounted a serious challenge for the position of emperor in the troubled period of the early 270s AD, known as the Gallic Empire," Abdy said.

The coin was part of a hoard discovered in April last year but Domitianus was only identified about three weeks ago.

British amateur archaeologist Brian Malin found the coin using a metal detector on farmland in Oxfordshire, southern England.

The coin was part of a hoard of some 5000 ancient Roman coins that were fused together in a pot from the third century AD.

Only one other coin known to bear the effigy of Domitianus was discovered in the Loire Valley in France in 1900. The lack of further matching coins had cast doubt on the authenticity of that find.

Once the coin's value is set, Malin will be entitled to half the sum.

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