Ten gold Gallic/Belgic staters minted by the fearsome Ambiani Tribe get to stay in England, where they were dug up after two thousand years in hiding.

A rare hoard of 10 gold coins recently discovered in Chiddingstone is being acquired by the Eden Valley Museum in Edenbridge, jolly old England.

Now that's money!   A reliable store of value over millennia.

The coins date from the Late Iron Age, about the time of Caesar’s Invasions of Britain. They were manufactured in the region of Amiens in Northern France and are thought to be of a type struck by the local tribes to finance their resistance to the invading Romans.

At this time both South East England and France were occupied by Celtic tribes who were closely connected by trade and family alliances. Celts from England fought with the Celts in France. It is likely that the coins found their way back to Kent as the pay or booty of soldiers. Then, for reasons

we can only guess at, they were buried and remained in the ground for over two thousand years until a metal detectorist discovered them.

The coins are Gallo-Belgic staters dating from between c60 to c50 BC. They were struck by the Ambiani Tribe in what is now Northern France. The reverse of the coins shows a stylised horse whilst the obverse is blank. It is thought that the obverse, which would normally show the head of the local ruler, was left blank precisely because the coins were minted by an alliance of Gallic tribes uniting to fight Julius Caesar.

Caesar invaded Gaul in 58 BC and after several years of fighting, effectively conquered Gaul by 51 BC. During this time he made his two incursions into Britain landing, it is now thought, at Pegwell Bay in 55 and 54 BC. All these campaigns were chronicled by Caesar in his "Gallic Wars".