Huge Iron Age haul of coins found in UK

[Ludovicus]

"One of the UK's largest hauls of Iron Age gold coins, which would have been worth in today's money up to

[caesar novus]

So the British Museum isn't taking possession for umpteen years of cataloging? I heard a lecture by a B.M. lady who was in charge of publishing the findings on one of the most major finds of Roman coins in Britain, and IIRC she hadn't gotten around to doing so after many years. Showed photos of the guy who had discovered them, who was long since dead. Had intriguing things to say about evidence about the ebb and flow of Christianity in Britain, based on frequency of CHI RHO (sp?) symbols found, which I imagine may or may not be known by scholars due to her tardiness. That motivated me to seek out more info, such as on this forum.

[caldrail]

What complicates things is British law. With any valuable finds, there's an inquest to find out who owns the items - The finder, the owner of the land, or the state. There is for instance a hoard of silver tableware locked away in an auction house in London because it appears the items may have been stolen and smuggled out of Rumania following a possible murder of the original finder. Whilst the current 'owner' is not under suspicion of criminal activity, the provenance of the items is suspect, and at least two major court cases on both sides of the Atlantic have failed to resolve this affair.

[caesar novus]

What complicates things is British law. With any valuable finds, there's an inquest to find out who owns the items - The finder, the owner of the land, or the state.

There is a clause in the treasure law or whatever that says the British Museum owns it if of great historical value. I was talking about the Hoxne Hoard of 15000 Roman coins (500 gold), which in the early 90's went to the Museum forever, and only this year is curator Catherine Johns expecting to publish a catalog of them. But I guess she published something about them earlier, and the finder did get a big compensation check before dying.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encycl...vent/hoxne.html

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highl...oxne_hoard.aspx

[DecimusCaesar]

Excellent find, and the coins seem to be in perfect condition.

 

I saw this hoard on the front of magazine recently when i wento shopping, so it's obviously attracted some attention. Makes you think how much else remains buried from the Iron Age era.

[guy]

"One of the UK's largest hauls of Iron Age gold coins, which would have been worth in today's money up to

Edited July 4, 2009 by guy

[Melvadius]

<SNIP>

And I don't understand the part of the article that says: "[the newly found coins] now belong to the crown." Say what?

 

guy also known as gaius

 

<SNIP>

 

This is really a simple way of saying who has first claim on items which fall under the 'Treasure Act (1996)', it doesn't mean that the Crown will actually claim them but AFAIK, under UK law, is a legal way in which someone can be 'granted' ownership of something they have found of 'real' monetary value so can then sell it [or be compensated if the State wishes to keep it] without running foul of the laws against illegal trafficking of archaeological items. It also settles any possible dispute about someone using a metal detector on either scheduled land (land known to contain archaeologically important material which musn't be dug except under strict archaeological guidelines) or on someone else's land without their permission. It ensures that everyone who is entitled to an equitable share of the proceeds from a 'sale' of such finds gets them.

 

The Act also makes provision that museums will have the first crack at obtaining important items as part of the Nations historical assets. This is always providing they can raise the amount which has been decided on as a fair value. If they can't then it can be sold on the open market.

 

[The coroners court starts the process rolling by sitting to determine ownership of such important finds which gets linked to a 'fair' valuation also being decided.]

 

Melvadius

 

[slight edit to clarify a couple of points]

Edited July 8, 2009 by Melvadius