Huge Hoard Of Iron Age Coins Found

THE LARGEST hoard of Iron Age coins ever found on the Island has been unearthed by metal detectors. The haul of nearly 1,000 base silver coins was dug up over two weeks at a secret West Wight location by members of the IW Metal Detecting Club.

But this week it also emerged the find is unlikely to be bought by the IW Museums Service for local display. County museums officer Dr Mike Bishop said his budget was empty and unless new funding was found, the service could not afford the many thousands of pounds at which the haul would inevitably be valued by the British Museum.

The coins were originally buried in a primitive clay pot and then scattered over the site by successive years of ploughing.

IW Metal Detecting Club member Albert Snell with some of the hoard of Iron Age coins he helped discover. Picture by LAURA HOLME.

Frank Basford, IW Council finds liaison officer, said 940 pieces made of a silver and copper alloy had been unearthed.

"It is an important, significant find. Iron Age coins themselves are common but it is very unusual to find them in this quantity," he said. "This is certainly the largest hoard of its kind ever found on the IW.

"It is impossible to say how the coins came to be buried. They could have been some sort of community savings and Iron Age people would sometimes bury their wealth in times of stress or trouble."

IW Metal Detecting Club founder and chairman Dave Clark said the first of the coins was discovered by Shanklin member Albert Snell.

More were subsequently uncovered by other members in what became a team effort. A quarter of the coins were found scattered over a large area of agricultural land away from the main hoard, he said.

"It was recovered over the course of a week by 16 of our members. They were all given an opportunity to dig. "It was such a wonderful occasion seeing these coins popping up everywhere," said Mr Clark.
He said he did not want to speculate on the value of the find.

"We are not in this for the money. Our club motto is 'pleasure not profit'. We just get a thrill from playing our part in helping discover the IW heritage." He said the location of the find was being kept a closely guarded secret to respect the wishes of the landowner, who did not want unauthorised or unscrupulous treasure hunters on his land.

Here's another hoard find, although I think we've had a topic about it.

Iron Age coins go on display
by SUE SKINNER
October 14, 2005
The annual summer excavation of a Saxon burial ground in the valley of the Heacham River has also uncovered evidence of an earlier, Iron Age settlement. The hoard of 32 Gallo-Belgic E staters has been described as the most significant find since the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (Sharp) began in 1996. Twenty of the coins, depicting a stylised horse on one side, were hidden inside the bone. They are believed to have been made by the Ambiani tribe of Gaul in northern France 2000 years ago, and there are two main theories about why they were buried. One is that the owner, perhaps a mercenary who had been fighting the Romans in Gaul, had been paid in gold staters and decided to give a votive offering to the gods for his safe passage home. Alternatively, he may have decided that his precious coins were too valuable to carry around, so hid them in the bone and buried them to be retrieved later. But he was then either killed or forgot where they were.

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