New Hoard of over 5,000 Ancient Coins Found in Britain , c11th Century.

The hoard is believed to be one of the largest ever found in Britain and dates from the 11th Century , a time of great change in Britain with the transition from the Anglo Saxon period to the early Norman post conquest.

It's thought the coins were buried in a lead container possibly a bucket.

Mr Coleman, from Southampton, was taking part in a dig in the Padbury area on 21 December when he found the 5,251 coins depicting the heads of kings Ethelred the Unready and Canute.

Mr Welch, who was immediately notified, said he was "shellshocked" when he realised "it was real".
"There was general silence and a sharp intake of breath of the people watching," he said.
"This is something you dream of witnessing, let along digging up.
"They looked almost uncirculated, like they were straight from a mint."
The old Buckingham mint would have been within a day's walking distance so a possible link with that will be explored, he said.
www.bbc.co.uk...

For nearly a thousand years old they look stunning.

I was fortunate to witness the uncovering of this jaw dropping magnificent hoard found in Lenborough last Sunday. A dig run by Weekend Wanderers. I managed to film the first couple of hours on my phone before the battery packed in.

www.ancient-origins.net...

well, that's Mr Coleman's retirement sorted out! Previous finds of hordes of coins have fetched quite a nice price when sold to a Museum (as they must first be offered under the Treasure Act 1996, being split 50/50 between the finder and landowner, so as long as this is declared treasure, he's laughing!

Interesting on an archaeological level as well....

Awesome. I've been fascinated with finding a hoard like this since I was a kid (most have I think). Time to start digging in my back yard.

Thanks for sharing.

What a find! And it's the largest ever found in the UK.

Imagine that those coins have been lying there for nine hundred years in that field and were never found, while time just kept rolling on. Generations lived and died, trees grew from saplings and fell down. Fields were constantly ploughed.

makes you wonder what else is out there waiting to be found

from the OP pics... those coins look the size of USA dimes
5000 of these coins would amount to 100 rolls of dimes (50 per roll)

at each roll weighing 4 ounces, then 100 rolls would be 400 ounces ~divided by 16~ would result in 25 pounds of coins

I was dumbfounded that one pic showed a bundle of packaged coins in an orange plastic bag, as being representative of the stash of coins

Paul Coleman from the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club discovered more than 5,000 coins buried inside a lead bucket two feet under a field near Aylesbury.

they better double-bag the coins if that is how they expect to transport their discovery

happy to hear of a windfall discovery
I expect collectors to buy a coin at a price near 100$ or a 100 E per coin, only because there will be so many available all at once

originally posted by: St Udio
I expect collectors to buy a coin at a price near 100$ or a 100 E per coin, only because there will be so many available all at once

That's not the way it works in the UK..

First, a finder must report it to the local Coroner, who will investigate it and decide whether it is classified as "Treasure", which is anything that fits the below description:

- All coins from the same hoard. A hoard is defined as two or more coins, as long as they are at least 300 years old when found. If they contain less than 10% gold or silver there must be at least 10 in the hoard for it to qualify.

-Two or more prehistoric base metal objects in association with one another

-Any individual (non-coin) find that is at least 300 years old and contains at least 10% gold or silver.

-Associated finds: any object of any material found in the same place as (or which had previously been together with) another object which is deemed treasure.

-Objects substantially made from gold or silver but are less than 300 years old, that have been deliberately hidden with the intention of recovery and whose owners or heirs are unknown.

If they qualify as "Treasure", then after valuation by experts, the finder must offer them to sale to Museums before they can be sold to anyone else, with the finder and landowner usually splitting the money 50/50.

EDIT: If it is truly the largest find of Anglo-Saxon coinage to date, then this could be worth in excess of £3 million.

originally posted by: KEMIK
Awesome. I've been fascinated with finding a hoard like this since I was a kid (most have I think). Time to start digging in my back yard.

Thanks for sharing.

I believe it was Charles Garrett that said something to the effect of: There is more money in the ground, than there is in circulation today.

That's a lot of money still buried.

a reply to: Klassified

Quite - if you some legwork and investigate history, you can come up with a good guess as to a rough area to find some Anglo-Saxon or Roman gold. For Roman's specifically, many took to abandoning their villa's when the Empire collapsed and buried their gold nearby for later recovery - locate an old Villa and you can reasonably assume that somewhere nearby there will be some riches buried. It's just a matter of finding them.

This particular horde was found not too far from a former Mint - as mentioned in the article.

a reply to: stumason

thanks for sharing

useful to know

originally posted by: St Udio
a reply to: stumason

thanks for sharing

useful to know

I just wish I could find some....

originally posted by: stumason
a reply to: Klassified

Quite - if you some legwork and investigate history, you can come up with a good guess as to a rough area to find some Anglo-Saxon or Roman gold. For Roman's specifically, many took to abandoning their villa's when the Empire collapsed and buried their gold nearby for later recovery - locate an old Villa and you can reasonably assume that somewhere nearby there will be some riches buried. It's just a matter of finding them.

This particular horde was found not too far from a former Mint - as mentioned in the article.

Anglo Saxon England had around 60 Royal Mints. There were less than 10 in France during the same period and even less in Scandinavia - which is the main reason everyone wanted a piece of us back then.

60 Royal Mints and periods of invasion = a lot of buried treasure around.

originally posted by: Klassified

originally posted by: KEMIK
Awesome. I've been fascinated with finding a hoard like this since I was a kid (most have I think). Time to start digging in my back yard.

Thanks for sharing.

I believe it was Charles Garrett that said something to the effect of: There is more money in the ground, than there is in circulation today.

That's a lot of money still buried.

And a lot of the money is being found by treasure hunters with metal detectors.

Bank in the early 80s when I used to be in the jewelry business, I bought ancient coins by the pound, usually from an English company.
They were usually mired together in one large clump of oxidation, but a ultra sonic cleaner quickly separated them. Usually they were just flat blobs of copper and bronze but occasionally you would find a gold or silver coin in the mix or some with distinct markings were the ones that found their way into my designs. I usually bought the Roman coins.

This is great stuff. Let's hope they end up in a English museum and are not broken up and sold abroad, or to private collectors.

It makes you wonder how many ancient artefacts are stolen by unscrupulous treasure hunters in England and abroad. You can imagine some ignorant twit melting the lot down and selling it as scrap.

Regards

a reply to: paraphi

They usually do end up in a Museum - by Law, if they are declared Treasure, they have to be offered to Museums first - in fact, these one's are sat with the British Museum now. If a local establishment doesn't come up with the goods, then they usually step in and buy it.

a reply to: gortex

That's too cool!

It is sad that my country (the U.S.) doesn't have such a long and rich history.

The oldest coins we find here are only a couple hundred years old-I couldn't imagine how awesome it must be to be able to find things that could possibly be a thousand years old in your own backyard.

a reply to: stumason

Lol-I wouldn't say a word about a find like that.

It would be sold one or two coins at a time in several locations over the rest of my life.

Besides-how many times do you hear about governments actually finding treasure-it's usually the little guy willing to do the work on his/her own on their own dollar with their own equipment.

And then whatever gov comes and steals it from them.

No thanks-I would rather keep anything I find.

originally posted by: FalcoFan
a reply to: stumason

Lol-I wouldn't say a word about a find like that.

It would be sold one or two coins at a time in several locations over the rest of my life.

Besides-how many times do you hear about governments actually finding treasure-it's usually the little guy willing to do the work on his/her own on their own dollar with their own equipment.

And then whatever gov comes and steals it from them.

No thanks-I would rather keep anything I find.

The government doesn't steal them from the people who found it. They buy it from them giving them fair market prices.

a reply to: buster2010

Sorry-I just don't trust them-I would trust Sheldon,however,lol.

That's a great discovery. I looked up coin prices on ebay and found the best silver pennies are auctioning off at prices of $2999.99 through $8499.99 per coin. That's amazing considering these new coins are in uncirculated conditions bringing the value of this hoard to an unbelievably high value.