Posted on 01/02/2015 3:06:59 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Amateur treasure hunters armed with metal detectors unearthed the rare Anglo Saxon coins near Aylesbury, Bucks., during a Christmas dig.
The stunning find is one of the most significant in Britain in recent years, say experts.
The perfectly preserved pieces, which feature the faces of Anglo Saxon kings, were in a lead bucket which was buried two feet underground.
The extremely rare coins could be worth more than £1million and Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club leader Pete Welch said the find was "very significant".
Pete, 56, said: "...It looks like only two people have handled these coins. The person who made them and the person who buried them. Metal detecting is a bit random but most farms have a bit of history so you have a chance of finding something. I think this was a case of you either move to the right or move to the left and on this case our member moved the right way..."
The discovery of a total of 5251 coins was made during the annual dig on December 21 on rural farmland the group had visited before.
After they were found archaeologist Ros Tyrrell was called to help excavate them.
The coins are in "superb condition" and show the faces of some of the kings of England dating back 1000 years.
They include coins from the reigns of Ethelred the Unready (978-1016 AD) and Canute, or Cnut (1016-1035 AD)...
He added that as the coins are precious metal over 300 years old they fall within the remit of the Treasure Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyrecord.co.uk ...
Your backyard perchance?
Well of course.
Good old Ethelred the Unready. I laughed at his name in a history class and PO’d the professor.
Wonderfully, the pejorative is both apt and wrong yet shows the state of England leading towards the Norman Conquest of 1066. Ethelred of Wessex was indeed unready to assume the throne (Wessex but also the last Anglo-Saxon Kingship in England) at age 10-13 especially when his half-brother, St Edward the Martyr, was apparently murdered by family retainers.
Yet the actual pejorative is 'Unræd' which really translates to 'ill-advised', a good term for the GGGrandson of Alfred the Great, who felt it necessary to pay the Danegeld rather than continue armed resistance to the Danish Invaders (Vikings). Still he was ultimately exiled to Norman safety when deposed by Sweyn Forkbeard, the King of Denmark. Although he returned to England and throne after Sweyn's death, his ultimate successor after his own death was Sweyn's son, Cnut the Great of Denmark.
The ultimate play in this millennial 'Game of Thrones' came 50 years later when the last Wessex King, Harold Godwinson, defeated a Viking Invasion headed by the Norse-Danish King Harald Hardrada and his own younger brother Tostig Godwinson before having to do a forced march south to defend and lose against the Norman (Norseman) Duke, William the Conquer, all in the space of less than 6 weeks.
The joke and wonder of these events was that all the men mentioned here were of a strong amount of Viking descent and probably some degree of cousins by blood.
I used to know all that stuff back in college, and once wrote a paper on the Norman Conquest. Then again the Vikings did not work and play well together in their native Scandinavia, either.
-far more buyers know
-there is no question about the authenticity or legality of owning the artifacts
-artifacts that are certified part of a heavily publicized wreck, buried treasure, barn, etc are usually worth far more
“-artifacts that are certified part of a heavily publicized wreck, buried treasure, barn, etc are usually worth far more “
In most places the state simply confiscates the item(s) and the finder gets nothing.
What happened to the couple that found coffee cans of old coins on their own property worth over a million $ in California not too long ago? They lawyered up but they came public with that story which they should have kept quiet and sold the coins.
“Wouldn’t that be considered theft?”
Recently, a family discovered they’d inherited a number of 1930’s gold coins. They asked the mint to authenticate them and the government seized them all based on a law from the 1930’s that said gold ownership was illegal.
The government is a bunch of thieves with nice suits and official credentials. But thieves nonetheless.
What a great description at that link! Thanks.
Absolutely amazing condition. They must have been buried just after they were minted.
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