File:Colchester 'two piece' Romano-British brooch, profile view (FindID 92688).jpg

English: Incomplete copper alloy Romano-British ‘Colchester’ two piece type brooch. Both wings are complete and semicylindrical, though one has received some damage to its terminal end. The wings are decorated with two pairs of double parallel lines to each wing. On each wing, one pair is set to either side of the head of the brooch and comprises of a raised beaded line first, paired with a raised plain line. The other pair of lines is at the terminal end of the wing and the plain line is set before the beaded line. Behind the head is a lug pierced with two circular perforations. The upper lug has broken away, but would have once held the exterior spring chord. The lower lug still holds in place the spring coil. One side of the coil has 8 turns and the other is incomplete with only 5. It is likely the springhead had 16 coils in total. The pin is entirely missing.

The head of the brooch is unusually flat, and turns down onto the bow at an almost 90 degrees. Running along the flat top of the head of the brooch is a moulded crest, which does not extend onto the bow. The bow is subcircular in section (with only a slightly flattened reverse) and tapers only slightly towards the foot, where it ends complete without a foot knob. It is decorated with a double grooved line that runs the complete length of the bow. The subsequent raised line formed between the two grooves may have been decorated (perhaps with a zigzag line) but the object is too worn to determine this.

The catchplate is solid and complete with its curl. The outer edge of the curl is decorated with an incised vertical zigzag line of three points. The original surface of the brooch is intact with a dark green patina, but it is pitted and exposes lighter green beneath. The spring coil is bright green with corrosion. The brooch is 53.56mm long, is 30.82mm wide across the wings, is 7mm wide across the bow, is 5.44mm thick and weighs 20.83g. This type of brooch dates from 50-70AD. An exact parallel of a brooch with this unusual head style could not be found, but Crummy 1983, The Roman small finds from Colchester illustrates a number examples of two piece Colchester brooches in figure 6.