A treasure of Anglo-Saxon coins sold for a huge sum

“Wow, this exceeded all our expectations”

A hoard of dozens of Anglo-Saxon coins found by two metal detectorists in Essex has sold at auction for a third of a million pounds. The coins, discovered near Braintree in Essex, are believed to have been buried nearly a thousand years ago.

A treasure of 122 Anglo-Saxon coins found by two treasure hunters has sold at auction for £325,560, the Daily Mail reports.

The coins, discovered near Braintree in Essex, are believed to have been buried in 1066, the year of the battle between the English and Norman armies for the throne of England.

Experts say there is a “tempting possibility” that the reason the coins were not recovered from the ground at the time was because their owner died in battle.

The coins were recently auctioned at Noonans Mayfair in London for £325,560. They were expected to fetch up to £180,000, with the proceeds from the treasure to be divided between the two finders and the landowner.

Following the sale, Nigel Mills, artefact and coin expert at Noonans, said: “Wow, this exceeded all our expectations. The atmosphere in the packed sales room was euphoric as bidders – in person and online – wanted just one piece from this important collection.” .

Two metal detectors discovered the hoard of 144 coins in 2019, and 16 of them were bought by Colchester Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge after they were processed under the terms of the Treasures Act 1996.

Among the coins bought by the museums were two Byzantine coins from the 11th century, writes the Daily Mail.

At the end of 2023, the remaining coins were seized and returned to those who found them.

122 coins were sold at auction, the rest were kept by treasure hunters. The highest price was paid for a very rare example from the Hastings Mint, which went under the hammer for £24,000, four times the pre-sale estimate of £5,000-6,000.

Auction house coin specialist Bradley Hopper said: “While the burial of the Braintree hoard may not have a direct connection to the events of 1066, the fact that it was never found certainly does. Twelve shillings was a significant amount of money, and their return must have been prevented by some great personal misfortune; we cannot say with certainty whether the owner of the Braintree treasure died fighting at Hastings, but it is a tempting possibility.”

The two treasure hunters, who have been searching together for 20 years, had previously found only copper coins and bells in the area, but that day a signal from a Minelab CTX 3030 metal detector revealed a silver penny just four inches below the surface. Half a dozen more were discovered within a 30-metre radius and that evening the lucky ones realized they were rare Harold II coins. Over the next few days, through the slow and methodical use of detectors, about 70 more were found. This was repeated in 2020, when another 70 coins were discovered.