Compiled by London Swaminathan               

Post No.7534

Date uploaded in London – – 4 February 2020

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

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Detectorists’ £10m Iron Age coin stash is UK’s biggest ever

AS COIN finds go, this one took a lot of counting… almost eight years in fact!

A hoard of 69,347 silver and gold Iron Age coins — worth £10million — has just been officially recognised by Guinness World Records as the UK’s biggest ever.

The stash, which dates from around 50BC and weighs almost 1,700lb, was unearthed by metal detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles on Jersey in the Channel Islands in 2012.

It was hidden under a hedge in a clay mound and also included jewellery.

The pair began their search back in the 1980s after a woman told them she had seen what looked like ‘silver buttons’ in a field.

The hoard has been declared ‘treasure’, which means it officially belongs to the Queen. But the duo are entitled to a reward — which is expected to be ‘considerable’. Some of the finds are now on display at the island’s La Hougue Bie Museum. Olga Finch, curator of archaeology for Jersey Heritage, said: ‘We are delighted that such an impressive archaeological item was discovered, examined and displayed in Jersey.

‘Once again, it puts our island in the spotlight of international research into Iron Age coinage and demonstrates the world class heritage Jersey has to offer.’

The previous Guinness record for the largest collection of ancient coins found in Britain was 54,951, near Mildenhall, Wiltshire, in 1978.

The world record is 150,000 pennies from the 13th century, found in Brussels in 1908.

Mr Mead and Mr Miles described the moment they received their official record certificates as ‘lovely’.

From Metro Newspaper dated 3-2-2020

–subham–