Re: Archaeological News

[Xenophon]

Couple renovating kitchen find hoard of English Civil War coins.
A couple renovating the kitchen of a 17th-century cottage found a £35,000 coin hoard hidden under the floor.

Betty and Robert Fooks had recently bought the property and were carrying out work to remove the kitchen’s concrete floor to create more ceiling height.

Mr Fooks dug down 2ft with a pickaxe by torchlight and unearthed a smashed glazed pottery bowl full to the brim with 400-year-old coins.

The agricultural engineer counted 1,029 of the coins, including King James I and King Charles I gold pieces.

The hoard is believed to have been buried for safekeeping between 1642 and 1644 during the English Civil War.

The couple reported the discovery to local officials and the collection was then sent to the British Museum for cleaning and identification.

The coins are now coming up for sale at Duke’s Auctioneers in Dorchester, Dorset.

The country cottage is part of a smallholding at South Poorton Farm, in a hamlet near Bridport, Dorset.

Mrs Fooks, a 43-year-old NHS health visitor, said: “It is a 400-year-old house so there was lots of work to do.

“We were taking all the floors and ceilings out and took it back to its stone walls.

“We decided to lower the ground floor to give us more ceiling height.

“One evening, I was with the children and my husband was digging with a pickaxe when he called to say they’ve found something. He put all the coins in a bucket and brought them home to me.”

She added: “If we hadn’t lowered the floor they would still be hidden there. It is amazing and fascinating.

“I presume they were buried during the English Civil War and the person intended to retrieve them but never got the chance.”

The hoard, which was discovered in October 2019, also contained Elizabeth I, Philip and Mary silver shillings and sixpences.

The most valuable coins are a James I gold laurel coin and a Charles I gold unite coin dating from the 1620s, which are both tipped to fetch £2,000.

The hoard has been split into almost 100 lots by Duke’s Auctioneers.

Julian Smith, a specialist at the auctioneers, said: “The coins have been with the British Museum for identification and cleaning, and they feel the coins were deposited on one occasion around 1642-4.”

The sale takes place on April 23.

[Xenophon]

Hoard of 11 Roman gold coins hidden in the decades before the Roman invasion of Britain has been discovered in the east of England, scattered near Norwich in Iceni tribe territory.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-61984020?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0kMr18iqGohVuLT3R1nojMmsm4PLTmF0JS-75AdDqcnp2EOQLLryBt4xE_aem_UqGnih9Q2rjQlt_19zgHQw

[Jay GT4]

What an interesting find!  Not sure I'd say they are "hardly worn" though.  I'd love to metal detect in England.

[Xenophon]

Celtic coins unearthed by metal detectorist sell for £103,000
The 35 coins discovered in a ploughed field in Kent are a rare Iron Age find

A metal detectorist pensioner who discovered a hoard of gold coins in a field said he was speechless after they sold for more than £100,000. Tony Asquith unearthed what looked like “a pile of chocolate buttons” while searching a recently ploughed field in Lenham, Kent, in August 2022.

After putting on his glasses he realised that he had discovered 35 gold coins covered in mud. The coins – known as Staters – dated back to around 55BC, a time when the Roman emperor Julius Caesar had already conquered Gaul and was attempting to conquer Britain.

The collection of coins had been valued at £20,000 prior to auction but were eventually sold on Wednesday for £103,000, at Noonans, in London. Mr Asquith, who has been a metal detectorist for 45 years, said: “I am speechless at the result and can’t believe it.” He first detected wire and shotgun cartridge , but as he dug down he unearthed the historic hoard during a rally in August 2022.

The coins were concealed inside a flint nodule which had broken open when the field was ploughed. They depict a horse galloping to the right with a charioteer’s arm above. Mr Asquith said: “It was an amazing find. The recent ploughing of the field must have brought the nodule to the surface, and broke it open, scattering its contents of coins.” Nigel Mills, coins and artefacts specialist at Noonans, said: “Using his Minelab Equinox 800, Tony at first just found some wire and a shotgun cartridge.

“But then, he got a signal which revealed a brownish coin. He was surprised to recognise this as a Celtic Stater. “On looking down he saw what looked like a pile of chocolate buttons laid out. Putting on his glasses, he realised that they were all Celtic Staters. “The coins were concealed within a flint nodule which was formed between 70-90 million years ago. “The hollow interior would originally have contained mud and the decayed remains of marine animals. “Ten other hoards of Iron Age gold coins contained in flint nodules have been found in Britain, but all of them are in museums.”

@Daily Telegraph 19/09/2024

[Xenophon]

Third picture of the Celtic staters:

[Joe Sermarini]

Beautiful hoard!

[Xenophon]

Seven metal detectorists given £4.3 million for Saxon hoard.

A team of seven metal detectorists who unearthed the UK's richest-ever treasure hoard that will be celebrating the most after their collection was acquired for the nation for a record £4.3million.

The extremely rare find, dating back 1,000 years, was dug up by the group of detecting enthusiasts in an unploughed field, in the Chew Valley area of north east Somerset, in January 2019. The 2,584 silver coins are made up of King Harold II pennies from the end of Anglo-Saxon England and William the Conqueror coins, after the 1066 Norman conquest.

The bulk of the coins were found by detectorists Adam Staples and Lisa Grace, who are believed to have become millionaires through the sale. Meanwhile the landowner, whose identity is not being revealed, is also entitled to a life-changing 50 per cent of the proceeds, a staggering £2.15million.

Many of the coins are in mint condition and experts say they would have been a substantial amount of money at the time and belonged to an important, wealthy person who probably buried them for safekeeping. As King Harold's reign only lasted nine months, before he was famously struck in the eye by an arrow at the Battle of Hastings, coins from that period are incredibly rare. The hoard also contains coins struck by previously-unknown moneyers.

Mr Staples, 48, said of the dig in a BBC interview in 2019: 'We didn't leave the site until we thought we'd got all the coins. 'We had a massive thunder and rainstorm. We were all soaking wet by the time we finished.' Mr Staples and Ms Grace, 47, had been training five friends on how to use metal detectors when they made the discovery.

The other finders will also receive a share of the proceeds, probably in the tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The hoard is the highest value treasure on record, beating the famous Staffordshire Hoard from 2009 - the biggest collection of buried coins and artefacts discovered in Britain - which was worth £3.3million.

The Chew Valley Hoard, which was reported under the Treasure Act (1996), has been acquired by the South West Heritage Trust after they received a £4.42million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund also covering display costs. This was boosted by £150,000 from Art Fund, and smaller grants from the Friends of The Museum of Somerset and the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society.

The hoard will go on display at the British Museum on November 26 and will then tour several museums before the Museum of Somerset becomes its permanent home.

The acquisition was welcomed by the Government who said it gives 'a unique insight into our country's rich history'.

Heritage Minister, Sir Chris Bryant said: 'This remarkable hoard gives us unique insight into our country's rich history and one of the most important moments in our history, when these islands were thrown into turmoil by the Norman Conquest.

'The Treasure Act 1996 ensures that these coins, dating back to 1066, will be displayed in Museums across the UK before residing in Somerset, giving people from different regions the opportunity to see this extraordinary treasure, learn more about our past and protect this part of our heritage for future generations.'