Metal Detecting

A real 'chunky munkey' of a hoard and congratulations to the finders who for once should get a bit more than the newspaper speculations! It was interesting to see the wear pattern on a lot of the Guineas. In this case this long stored hoard was not just made up of the 'best' examples the owner could find but rather they were added as they went along from circulation it seems. Does the late date of deposit take a bit of the 'mystery' of the stash away a bit though? I mean if it had just consisted of the hammered gold there would have been a bit more 'romance' to the story in my mind. I've read of other similar 'collections' that have come up and right at the end of the date run there was a 'late' Victorian issue. Many of us have built up fine 'banks' of coins from years in the hobby and if I stuck fifty or so denarii at the bottom of my garden but put a 1971 decimal coin set on top of them, do they lose their 'shine' if not their value?
Still a cracking lot and as the story came out in the same week I found a Charles the second Guinea of 1680, it really sparked my interest. I was happy with my unusual recovery until I saw the pictures of this lot...then I felt very 'inadequate' compared to these folk's treasure for which they didn't even need a detector!

Not found gold yet, so doubly inadequate

I found 5p on the beach in Christchurch....Winning!

The coin dealer has brought up a valid point that the hoard should of been disclaimed by the Coroner and the Treasure registrar and the BM shouldn't be keeping 2 of the coins.

His basis is according to the laws of the Treasure act, if the original owner can be identified then it falls outside the stipulations of the Treasure act and should be disclaimed and returned to finder.

The collection originally belonged to Joseph and Sarah Fernley-Maisters, a couple from an influential mercantile family, who married in 1694 and died in 1725 and 1745, respectively. The family made their money trading in iron ore, timber, and coal.

“Joseph and Sarah clearly distrusted the newly-formed Bank of England, the ‘banknote’ and even the gold coinage of their day because they [chose] to hold onto so many coins dating to the English Civil War and beforehand.

targets wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 10:53 am https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/y ... 7ab90f3cfd

Incredible and mind-blowing event. Minting errors too, very interesting!!
History beneath our feet !

Great find. People up and down the land will now be ripping up their floors looking for a jackpot. Or is that just me...

donutluvva wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:04 pm I found 5p on the beach in Christchurch....Winning!

One of my fields is about 10 acres and all I found was a 5p piece and not much more on the rest of the farm.