Free Republic

The Viking Herald reports that two rare English "Lamb of God" coins were recently unearthed in Jutland. During the eleventh century, English monarchs undertook various initiatives to try to ward off seemingly unending Viking attacks. Around 1009, King Æthelred the Unready even minted unusual coins in the hope of obtaining divine protection. The objects feature a lamb and a cross on one side -- a Christian motif alluding to Christ's sacrifice -- and a dove on the other, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Not only did these coins fail in their objective, they became somewhat coveted by Viking raiders,...

Robert Fooks swung a pickaxe into his kitchen floor to steal a few more inches of ceiling height. Instead, he cracked open a glazed pottery bowl that had been sitting in the earth beneath his 400-year-old Dorset cottage since the English Civil War. Inside sat roughly 1,000 gold and silver coins, untouched since someone buried them in the mid-1640s.The story surfaced after the coins sold at auction in 2024. The hoard lay hidden beneath the kitchen floor at South Poorton Farm until Robert and Betty Fooks decided to lower the ground level during a renovation...The couple bought the property in...

A remarkable archaeological discovery in eastern Norway has revealed the largest Viking Age coin hoard ever found in the country, offering new insights into trade, wealth, and political transformation during the late 10th and early 11th centuries.The hoard, uncovered in a field near Rena in Østerdalen, currently consists of 2,970 silver coins, with excavations still ongoing. Archaeologists believe the total may rise further as the site continues to be investigated under controlled conditions. The discovery is already being described as unprecedented in a Norwegian context.The coins originate from a wide geographical area, underscoring Norway's extensive international connections during the Viking...

Archaeologists in Chile have uncovered a 16th-century silver coin, confirming the location of one of South America's most infamous failed colonial settlements at the site of Rey Don Felipe – later known as Puerto del Hambre, or "Port Famine".Located on the north shore of the Strait of Magellan, Rey Don Felipe was founded in 1584 with around 300 Spanish settlers. According to historical accounts, the extreme conditions led to the settlers starving or freezing to death, and by the arrival of English navigator Thomas Cavendish in 1587, the settlement was mostly in ruins.The coin, valued at eight reals and bearing...

The Finance Ministry said Tuesday it will issue commemorative ¥1,000 [US$6.25] coins marking the 100th anniversary of the 1926 start of the Showa Era. The coins will be priced at ¥34,800 [US$218] apiece. The obverse design features a Shinkansen bullet train, Tokyo Tower and expressways in color, symbolizing postwar reconstruction and rapid economic growth. The reverse depicts Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and doves. A total of 40,000 coins will be issued. Japan Mint will accept applications for about three weeks starting Aug. 20. This marks the first coin honoring a Japanese era since silver coins were issued in 2018 to...

A new Roman adventure begins! Join Miss Detectorist UK as coins fall from the earth along an ancient Roman road—now a quiet Wiltshire farm field. What starts as a routine dig turns into an extraordinary metal detecting day: a haul of 25 Roman coins and two incredible artefacts, including a beautiful bronze snake ring that hasn’t seen the light of day for nearly 2,000 years. Step into the past with Miss Detectorist and her detecting buddy as they trace the footsteps of Roman Britain, uncovering stories buried beneath the soil. From the first signal to the last astonishing find, this...

No matter how far liberals sink, we can always count on them to explore new depths of pettiness. For instance, leave it to liberals to grouse about a modest and historically appropriate change to a commemorative coin now in circulation. Then, leave it to those same liberals to blame President Donald Trump for the design when, in fact, the change occurred during the final months of former President Joe Biden's administration. […] … (L)iberals have speculated that the removal of the peace-signifying olive branch symbolizes Trump’s bellicosity. […] As usual, however, the liberals got it wrong. In fact, the Citizens...

James Edwards, chief cashier for Leeds Transport Company in the 1950s, put aside any fake or foreign coins he found when gathering fares from the city's bus and tram drivers, before passing them to his grandson Peter.Peter, now 77, kept the coins safe for more than 70 years and has now discovered one of the collection is so old that Jesus hadn't even been born when it was minted.He found that the small coin was made in the 1st Century BC by the Carthaginians, an ancient Mediterranean civilisation with Phoenician roots, in Cádiz, Spain.On one side it bears the face...

Eight emperors are shown on the coins. However, three of the coins featured an unexpected ruler -- Eugenius, who only ruled the Western Roman Empire from 392 to 394 CE. Eugenius came to power partially due to the support of a powerful general Arbogast. Arbogast was a Frank -- the Germanic-speaking peoples who invaded the Western Roman Empire during the Fifth Century.When Christianity was becoming increasingly dominant in the Roman Empire, Eugenius attempted to restore pagan practices and traditions. His brief reign was marked by conflict and political instability. Eugenius primary opponent -- Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I -- eventually...

In 2003, metal detectorist Brian Malin found the Chalgrove Hoard near Chalgrove, around 10 miles from Oxford. Inside a huge jar were nearly 5,000 late Roman coins, mostly copper-alloy radiates with that familiar "silvered" look that is really just debased coinage from the Crisis of the Third Century. After numismatists worked through the hoard coin by coin, one piece stood out. It looks ordinary, but the legend names an emperor who should not exist: Domitianus.The new Roman emperor discovered from a coin - Domitianus | 16:19TopRomanFacts | 37.2K subscribers | 25,111 views | January 9, 2026YouTube transcript reformatted at textformatter.ai...

Live Science reports that two 2,300-year-old gold coins have been recovered from the Bärenfels bog in northern Switzerland by a pair of volunteers working with the local archaeology department, Archaeology Baselland. These Celtic coins imitated Greek gold staters minted during the reign of Philip II of Macedon (reigned 360–336 B.C.), and feature an image of the Greek god Apollo on one side and a two-horse chariot on the other. The Celts added a triple spiral known as a triskele, or triskelion, beneath the horses on the smaller coin's reverse. These gold coins, and the 34 silver coins that had previously...

A jug holding a vast number of Roman coins was found during an excavation at a French village. (Image credit: © Simon Ritz, Inrap) Archaeologists in France have discovered three ancient storage jars brimming with tens of thousands of Roman coins. The vessels were buried in pits 1,700 years ago in the house floor of an ancient settlement, possibly as a type of safe or piggy bank. These three jugs, known as amphorae, were uncovered during excavations run by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) in the village of Senon in northeastern France, and may contain a total...

How did more than $3 million in Civil War era gold coins end up in a farm field, somewhere in Kentucky? Everyone from the Washington Post to USA Today to major TV news networks covered this story last summer when it first broke, but in this segment you'll hear for the first time from the Lexington coin dealer who brokered the sale of the coins when he was first approached by the farmer who literally stumbled upon them. You'll also hear from a UK professor about why she thinks the coins were buried in the first place, and from some...

To celebrate America's Semiquincentennial in 2026, the Mint will be updating the circulating nickels, dimes, and quarters that you find in your pocket change. Browse the image portfolio below to see all the 2026 coins or visit our Media Kit to read about the background of the designs.

This video features an extremely rare decadrachm of Alexander the Great - a coin that the conqueror himself might have presented to one of his officers. Alexander the Great held this coin (maybe) | 4:14 Toldinstone Footnotes | 44.2K subscribers | 3,217 views | December 2, 2025 Coins [Toldinstone Footnotes search]

Back in April of 2020, a British family who was stuck at home during the pandemic lockdown busied themselves with some yardwork at their home in Hampstead and ended up unearthing a cache of 69 gold coins from the Tudor period. The family, who have asked to remain anonymous, registered the remarkable find with the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, but the discovery was not publicly announced at the time. The coins are all dated between the 1420s and 1530s, showing the images of the four English kings from that time period: Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII, and Henry...

A more than 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck carrying treasure that might be worth up to $17 billion was discovered with the help of an underwater robot. It's called the Remus 6000 and it can dive nearly four miles and is loaded with sensors and cameras. Bronze cannons confirmed "the holy grail of shipwrecks" had been found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. They are engraved with dolphins — a telltale sign they belong to the Spanish galleon San Jose, lost more than 300 years ago. "I just sat there for about 10 minutes and smiled," said Jeff Kaeli, a research...

The Royal Navy sank the galleon in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, but its resting place had been a mystery for more than three centuries. Today its contents could be worth billions. ...Experts speculate that the ship was loaded with at least 200 tons of treasure, including millions of high-purity gold doubloon coins, as well as many silver coins and emeralds that the Spanish empire had plundered from South America, worth up to $17bn (£13.5bn) today. The salvage rights have been subject to decades of litigation and are contested by a professional salvage company that claims to...

The Republic of Colombia announced Wednesday in a press release that they designated the wreckage of the San Jose galleon as a “Protected Archaeological Area.“ The Colombian government called the San Jose wreckage “one of the most important of the colonial period in America” and announced they were also launching a multiphase research project around the ship, the press release reads. The San Jose, a ship belonging to the Spanish crown, was sunk by the British navy in 1708 with only a few of its 600-strong crew surviving the incident, CBS News reported. The ship was reportedly believed to be...

Colombia on Friday opens bidding for investors willing to retrieve billions of dollars in gold and silver from an 18th century ship wreck off the country's Caribbean coast. The Spanish galleon "San Jose" was the main ship in a fleet carrying gold and silver -- likely extracted from Spanish colonial mines in Peru and Bolivia -- and other valuables back to King Philip V. It sank in June 1708 during combat with British warships attempting to take its cargo, as part of the War of Spanish Succession. Only a handful of the ship's crew of 600 survived. President Juan Manuel...