Today's most viewed
Treasure find by dad and son
 |
| HOBBY: Metal detecting turned up a buried haul of medieval coins |
TWO 14th century coins found in a field have been declared treasure trove.
Ron Blair, 60, of Windermere Avenue, Clitheroe, and son James, 37, of Nelson Street, found 30 medieval coins on a metal detecting expedition near Clitheroe last August.
The final two coins from the find were ruled on by an inquest in Blackburn and are being kept at the British Museum, London.
Due to the nature of the coins and their quantity, they have been classified "treasure trove" and must be valued before being offered for sale to museums
Among the coins were pennies, halfpennies, groats and half groats from the time of Edward I and Edward II, Henry V and Henry VI.
The earliest are from 1351 and the latest around 1427.
One of the latest coins to be looked at was a silver groat from the 1400s, the time of Henry VI.
The other was a silver penny from the 14th century and is badly damaged.
The Blairs now have to wait to see whether anybody wants to buy the coins. If not they could be returned to them.
Mr Blair said: "These are extra coins from the find back in August.
| LET US KNOW | | Have you ever found any treasure? Add your comments below. |
|
"The British Museum has still got of them and we are waiting for the whole lot to be processed.
"They will offer them up for sale. I know the British Museum doesn't want them but another museum might.
"The original estimate was £1,200 to £1,500.
"I would say these are the best things we have ever found. They are really quite something.
"We had to let a field liaison officer at Preston Museum know within 16 days otherwise they'd have been confiscated."
Dr Barrie Cook, curator of Medieval and early modern coinage at the British Museum, said: "The penny appears to have been clipped down to the weight standard introduced in 1412.
"Both are of good silver and appear to correspond to those previously found on the site."
Coroner Michael Singleton said: "I find these coins are treasure.
"I congratulate you on the find. This is one of the few instances when an inquest is a nice occasion."
Coroners must decide, on behalf of the Crown, whether an item is treasure or can be kept by the person who found it.
8:28pm Friday 23rd February 2007
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
