The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset. The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire.
Posted on 07/08/2010 5:15:35 AM PDT by csvset
One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector. The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset.
The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire.
"I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first major coin hoard," he said.
After his metal detector gave a "funny signal", Mr Crisp says he dug down 14in before he found what had caused it. "I put my hand in, pulled out a bit of clay and there was a little Radial, a little bronze Roman coin. Very, very small, about the size of my fingernail."
Mr Crisp reported the find to the authorities, allowing archaeologists to excavate the site.
Offering to gods
Since the discovery in late April, experts from the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum have been working through the find.
The coins were all contained in a single clay pot. Although it only measured 18in (45cm) across, the coins were packed inside and would have weighed an estimated 160kg (350lb).
"I don't believe myself that this is a hoard of coins intended for recovery," says Sam Moorhead from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
"I think what you could see is a community of people who are actually making
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
There's a pic and a short video interview of Mr. Crisp at the source.
GGG Ping
“Portable Antiquities Scheme” - An honest name for a gov’t office!
This should be a new parlor game in America....giving honest names to Obama’s new czar posts.
Thanks! Very interesting. Says the coins wereprobably an offerto the gods.
In the 3rd century it seems to me it wasmoreprobably a hoard?
Boy, is the price of those coins going to drop.
Unless they have found some additional evidence to bolster that opinion, they’re guessing.
I'm going to have to show him this story. Right now he finds an old railroad spike or tire iron and you would thing he found the Lost Dutchman mine.
A metal detector for your 8 y/o - Makes me hopeful for the future!
Maybe not. Doesn't the UK gubmint usually take/seize a large portion of finds like this? If that happens it will keep most of them off the market.....
It’s unfortunate there aren’t any Roman coins in the U.S. But fortunately the generally better weather and relative freedom and economic opportunity (vanishing, but still here for now) tend to make up for that.
Around here (SE Tennessee) folks hunt Civil War relics with metal detectors. There was a battle that occurred not far from me called "Wheelers Raid" where Confederates ambushed a 1300 wagon Union wagon train as it was making it's way over Signal Mountain towards Chattanooga. People are still finding miniballs, belt buckles and buttons, occasionally cannon balls and cartridges, horse tack, etc. Indian artifacts, i.e., projectile points, gaming stones, drills, etc, are found fairly common here, too.
Depends upon your definition(s). It works out to the equivalent of Eminent Domain here in the USofA, the Government is taking this but has to offer the "Market Value" of that which they are taking. Obviously the devil is in the determination of the value. Other considerations that come into play are the property owner's rights, the right to keep something and it's value as a historical artifact.
And you would have realized value from them exactly how? Trying to sell a hoard of that size on the market would bring you to the attention of the authorities—how exactly would the coins do you any good sitting in your basement?
Yeah, I suppose you’d patiently sell one or two a year for a few thousand years. . . . Maybe three or four a year??
Around here (SE Tennessee) folks hunt Civil War relics with metal detectors.
Now that does sound like a cool thing to do. Not much Civil War stuff to find here in the Pacific Northwest.
I would have held onto them until our economy crashes (matter of weeks) and then they would have been worth more than our useless greenbacks, heck with that many, I could form my own little economic system in our neighborhood, that would make me what? The Federal Reserve, ya, I’d a been sittin’ pretty ...
I wonder if you could find stuff out on the beach? Folks in Florida find relics on certain beaches, sometimes Spanish gold and such, after big storms churn up the bottom. There might be stuff washing up on the beaches out your way after a big knock down drag out winter storm. With all the whaling that was done out there I would think there would be plenty of wrecks off shore providing stuff to be washed up and found. That would thrill a boy well beyond any video game.....me too, for that matter......
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and that is the problem with collecting Roman / ancient coins! Never know when a hoard will kill the value of ones collection.
If I remember correctly the value of a number of Morgan Silver dollars dropped when a hoard was discovered some years ago. It happens.
None that we've found yet, nor are we ever likely to, but never say never.
Wouldn't that be a kick?
You know I didn’t think of it until now, but we are going to the Ocean beaches in August. Have to make sure the metal detector is on the pack list.
Be patient, I'm sure an LDS Freeper will be here shortly trying to convince you to keep digging.
The feds in the UK treat treasure as the USA does eminent domain. They take the treasure but pay the finder a fee, whether it is a fair fee or not I don't know.
A friend and I built a metal detctor in high school. We took it to the local beach ... and located buried discarded cigarette packages by the tinfoil they contained. Found no money or rings.
I once visited Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia during their winter (Bondi is a very popular and crowded beach during their summer.) There were several people on the beach running in and out with the waves and staring down at the sand and shallow water while they were doing that. One of them told me he’d found a bit over a dollar in change that day doing that. Poor man’s metal detector.
I hope he managed to “lose” a few before her majesty’s gubmint took the cache.
In lieu of a finder's fee, the lucky individual will receive an iPod with Obama's speeches...
The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset. The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire.
Bronze Sestertius 30mm (20.54 grams) Rome mint: 243 A.D.
The so called value can be fixed as well by whomever is doing the appraisal. Such a thing might happen as a favor to the museum. I hope its not the museum itself that is having the valuation done - that would be outrageous.
The hoard, which was valued at 3.3 million pounds ($5 million) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2549089/posts
Some temples would act as depositories where valuables could be kept, but the article doesn't say what this was near.
I was just going to do a search on this in preparation to posting it. Glad you saved me the trouble! Interesting story.
The picture caption said the coins were found in a “jar” but the article said they were found in a “pot”. Does anyone know the container for sure? The age of the container should provide a clue as to who buried it.
I want one for Christmas too! :)
I doubt their price will drop. late Third Century Antoninianii are already extremely common, in large part due to the hyper-inflationary condition of the Roman economy at that time. There are literally millions of these types of coins, and most of them are probably still in the ground waiting to be found. Coins of Carausius and Allectus will be quite valuable though, as they are pretty scarce and they have a British connection (they were were seccessionist rebel British Emperors) so they are quite popular with British collectors especially....
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