new hidden treasure found?!?

Geoman

Is this true? Pretty cool of it is. And to keep it a secert for all that time. Has anyone heard what the actual coins are?

article on it

lordmarcovan

Iron Age? 2,000 years old? They could only be Celtic coins then, I would think. Well, maybe Roman Republican denarii. They said the helmet was Roman.

Some amazing hoards pop up in the British Isles, and some monster treasures crop every four or five years. This sounds like such a monster find. Interesting. You should post this on the Darkside. (World & Ancient Coin Forum.)

Sure can't tell from that picture. Looks more like Celtic coins than Roman.

Edit- just read the part about it being before the Roman conquest. Yup. Definitely Celtic coins, then. Gold staters and such.



<< <i>It clearly belonged to a centurion or other senior officer, but almost certainly was buried in the decades before the Roman invasion of the first century - suggesting that it belonged to a Briton who crossed the channel, joined the legions, prospered mightily, and returned to tell the tale and make a stupendous offering to the pagan gods. >>

Russ

<< <i>The first coins were spotted in 2000 by a retired teacher, Ken Wallace, while walking across a ploughed field. He returned with a metal detector and found hundreds more. >>



The classic fantasy fulfilled.

Russ, NCNE

lordmarcovan

Some of the silver staters might have looked roughly similar to this:

Askari

Now there's a find I'd like to make!! (Not hardly, seeing how I live in Texas.) If the storyline is right, they may be Celtic or Roman or even Greek coins.

1jester

Wow!

lordmarcovan

That's true. I guess they could be anything that was struck prior to the Year One.

I hope more pictures and description will be forthcoming. Would like to see the helmet, too.

nwcs

Really cool. I wonder how they will go about selling the coins? Especially since they won't keep them all. And I wonder if the original discoverer gets a portion of them?

JeffinMich

I saw a tv show on this topic once....the British government gets the coins under some law, and they pay the finder fair market value for the discovery. This apparently happens every few years in a farm field.

Conder101

<< <i>I saw a tv show on this topic once....the British government gets the coins under some law, and they pay the finder fair market value for the discovery. >>


This is the British Treasure Trove law. It only applies to objects of gold or silver and the way it works is the items are examined and if they are desired by museums they are kept and the finder is paid an amount equal to the fair market value of the items. If they are not needed or wanted by the museums then they are returned to the finder. So the finder is not losing out either way. If Treasure Trove is found and not reported then it is forfeit to the state.

This is in contrast to the law in many other countries that say all gold and silver items found are forfeit to the state and the finder gets nothing. That only encourages finders to not report finds and items sell on the black market. All historical background about the items is lost.

JeffinMich

Conder - thanks for clarifying. I now recall the tv show in more detail. 2 guys found several thousand silver Roman coins in a farm field, near the top of a hill where a residence likely stood about 2000 years prior. There were so many coins, they would dig a signal and find 4-5 coins in the same hole, or they were just picking them off the ground.

lordmarcovan

I believe that was Eric Lawes of Suffolk who found that hoard. The story goes something to the effect of how he'd lost a hammer or some tool while working on a tractor in his field. He borrowed a detector to find the tool, and found the hoard instead.