700-year-old Danish 'Civil War' coins uncovered

The Local ^ | Wednesday, February 10, 2016 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

A horde of 700 year-old coins has been found by a group of metal detectors in a Jutland field being excavated by archaeologists, the Viborg Museum announced on Wednesday.

Coins dating back to a tumultuous period of civil war in Denmark were found in a field south of Foulum and are being put on display at the Viborg Museum.

The museum said that three members of the Central Jutland Detector Society (Midtjysk Detektorforening) discovered the mediaeval coins, which are thought to have been hidden during the first half of the 1300s, a period of internal unrest in Denmark which culminated in a temporary end of royal rule.

The instability of the era is said to be reflected in the poor quality minting and low silver content of the coins.

"The treasure comes from an unstable period, and it is conceivable that the owner wanted to hide them away until better and more stable times. For some unknown reason, he never returned to collect his coins," Viborg Museum curator Mikkel Kjeldsen said.

The metal detector search was carried out on the field near the town of Foulum during the final stage of a wider excavation of an Iron Age building at the site. But with a 1,000-year age difference between the building and the coins, an explanation of how the treasure came to the area remains clouded by mystery.

"It is not unusual to find civil war coins when we investigate fields near Middle Age towns and villages, but when we find so many collected and hidden together, it really sets your mind at work thinking about who could have put them there, and why," Morten Nielsen, chairperson of Central Jutland Detector Society and one of the finders of the coins, said.

[SunkenCiv]

Three members of the Central Jutland Detector Society discovered a cache of 700-year-old coins in a field near the excavation of an Iron Age building. The poor quality and low silver content of the coins are thought to reflect the civil war in Denmark at the time. "The treasure comes from an unstable period, and it is conceivable that the owner wanted to hide them away until better and more stable times. For some unknown reason, he never returned to collect his coins," Viborg Museum curator Mikkel Kjeldsen told The Local, Denmark. The coins will be cleaned and displayed at Viborg Museum. ['Horde of Medieval Coins Discovered in Denmark', Archaeology Magazine]

[SunkenCiv]

[sparklite2]

The coins were worth about $2200 at the time.
Compounding over seven hundred years at today’s
interest rates, they are today worth $2210.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Rick on “Pawn Stars” would offer them $50 for it.

[Rockpile]

There was an account of a fellow cutting into the cellar wall in an old house in a small French town and hundreds of coins started falling out from the 1300s—1400s.

If you can recall that do you know any details?

[kearnyirish2]

No, he would offer $10 because he doesn’t get many people looking for 700 year-old Danish coins.

Some places ban the use of metal detectors to prevent people from digging up everything that beeps.

[TigersEye]

How did they get there? I swear I buried them on Oak Island!

[tarheelswamprat]

A horde of 700 year-old coins...

Oh for heaven's sake, have these writers never heard of a thesaurus? For example:

A horde of our politicians have whored themselves to acquire and hoard their stolen taxpayer booty.

[TXnMA]

Nicely done!

[Does so]

Good cache!

;)

[SunkenCiv]

A young woman walked into a bank, wanted to open an account. Because the amount was so large — $350,000 — she was directed to one of the managers.

“My,my, $350,000! Did you hoard all that money yourself?”

“No, my sister hoard half of it.”

[SunkenCiv]

Silly, the Knights Templars dug it up on Oak Island and moved it across the Atlantic to Roslyn Chapel!

[SunkenCiv]

I don’t, but maybe a web search would turn up something. OTOH, there are lots of fake or botched stories about finds, such as a story about thousands of intact Roman-era human remains that were exposed by a dig during Mussolini’s projects, but started to decay immediately when exposed to air, and were allowed to turn to dust. That’s just some wartime propaganda.

[TigersEye]

{smacks forehead}

And here I was blaming the Aztecs for stealing it from me!

[colorado tanker]

To make matters worse, the Black Death came to Denmark during this period.

[Billthedrill]

And here I was blaming the Aztecs for stealing it from me!

You can't trust the Aztecs with gold. They gave mine to the Spanish and I never did get it back.

Dang Aztecs.

[TigersEye]

I’m not giving up though.
I’ll get my gold back if I have to spend every last penny I’ve got!