MORE than 60 gold coins (and one lone silver) worth about £14,000 were found by a New Forest family as they weeded their garden during the first lockdown.
Dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, the haul included four from Henry VIII’s reign, featuring the initials of his wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Most of the coins are of a type known as “angels” for the design on the obverse of the archangel Michael slaying a dragon (ie, satan) with a cross shaped spear. First minted under Edward IV in 1465, angels were the standard gold coin in Britain for two centuries. The dates of the coins in the hoard suggest they were buried around 1540. The total value of the coins in 1540 was £24, which was much more than average annual wage in the Tudor era. On the auction market today, the coins would be worth around £220,000.
Experts speculated the coins were left around 1540 and may have been stashed by a protective merchant or hidden by a monastery or church during the Dissolution.
Via the always good History Blog.
and how much, if any, was the family allowed to keep?
ReplyDeleteIn England will they get to keep even 1/2?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have reported it.
ReplyDelete1/2 of a windfall of about 220,000 pounds ($290,000) = 110,000 pounds ($145,000) would be perfectly OK with me.
DeleteMy property, my gold.
ReplyDeleteFuck the "government "
I think in Britain the finders reward is free passes to the museum so they can go look at the gold.
ReplyDeleteThe straight dope: https://infogalactic.com/info/Treasure_trove#England.2C_Northern_Ireland.2C_and_Wales
ReplyDeleteAbstract:
In the U.K. everything defaults to the Crown,so
not reporting a find is a crime. They do usually give the finder fair market value, and if it is trivial enough (in England) you might get to keep it. In Scotland, no dice.
In the U.S. we told the Crown what it could do with it's sovereignty, so found treasure is treated as lost property.A good faith effort has to be made to find the owner. If not discovered it defaults to the finder, or in some states, the landowner (so as to discourage trespassing varmints)