Hoard of
gold coins found in Suffolk,
England. I have pasted the article below in case the link goes down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7835228.stmAlex.
One of the UK's largest hauls of Iron Age
gold coins, which would have been worth in today's
money up to £1m, has been found in Suffolk.
The 824 so-called staters were found in a broken
pottery jar buried in a
field near
Wickham Market by a local
man using a metal detector.
Jude Plouviez, of the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, said the coins dated from 40BC to AD15.
They are thought to have been minted by predecessors of Iceni Queen Boudicca.
Ms Plouviez said their value when in circulation
had been estimated at a modern equivalent of between £500,000 and £1m, but they were likely to be worth less than that now.
"It's a
good, exciting find. It gives us a lot of new information about the late Iron Age, and particularly East Anglia in the late Iron Age.
"The discovery is important because it highlights the probable political, economic and religious importance of an
area.
"It certainly suggests there was a significant settlement nearby. As far as we understand, it was occupied by wealthy tribes or subtribes," she said.
Ms Plouviez said the find was the largest
collection of Iron Age
gold coins found in
Britain since 1849, when a farm worker unearthed between 800 and 2,000 gold staters in a
field near Milton Keynes.
She said secret excavations
had been carried out on the latest find in Suffolk after a
man reported it to the council's archaeological service in October.
The staters, which each weigh about 5g, will now be valued ahead of a treasure trove inquest.
"We don't know how much they will be worth but it will be less than they were at the time," said Ms Plouviez.
"After the treasure trove inquest, they will be offered to museums at their current value."
She said the exact location of the find would not be made public but added "thorough" searches of the
area had not uncovered any further artefacts.
