coins

Now some Early Modern coins …

May 21, 2024

archaeology, art, battles, buildings

Charles I, coins, Dorset, Elizabeth I, Hoards, James VI/I, Mary I, Phillip II, War of the Three Kingdoms

… ie dating from the era immediately after Richard III, in particular from Mary I and Philip to Charles I. These were found under the floorboards of a West Dorset house by Robert and Becky Fooks, having been hidden during the Civil War, to be auctioned shortly for about £20,000.
Found under the living room floor….a medieval well and a sword….!

Apr 12, 2024

art, buildings

coins, Plymouth, rings, sinkholes, swords, Wells

I find this story quite discomforting. Just the thought that merely crossing your living room might result in falling through the floor into a 15th-century well is enough to give me the shivers. Mind you, if I noticed a dip in the floor I’d have had it inspected a little more promptly than the ten…
More Anglo-Saxon coins

Nov 16, 2023

art, Science

Alfred, Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, Ceolwulf II, coins, Durham, Herefordshire, Mercia, metal detecting, Wessex

Here is a BBC article about two men who discovered, in 2015, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins in Herefordshire and chose to conceal them, leading to two collectors being convicted in Durham. The two-headed coins depicted Alfred together with his Mercian colleague, Ceolwulf II, about whom they are highly informative. Ceolwulf had previously been…
A beautiful country house in the Hoxne Hoard village….

Jan 2, 2023

art, buildings, religion, Science

coins, Country Life, de la Poles, Hoxne, Hoxne Hoard, metal detecting, Old Vicarage, property sales, Smithsonian, Suffolk, Waveney Valley

Anyone who watched the brilliant BBC series The Detectorists will know what to hope of a home in Hoxne, Suffolk. The village is the location of The Hoxne Hoard, the largest collection of late-Roman gold and silver ever found in Britain, today worth almost £4 million. And now the Old Vicarage in Hoxne is for…
Digging for Treasure

Dec 8, 2022

anniversaries, archaeology, battles, buildings, religion, Science, television reviews

Abdication, aeroplanes, Anglo-Saxons, Anne Neville, Boudicca, castles, Channel Five, coins, Dan Walker, Digging for Treasure, Fincham, King’s Lynn, Lancaster bombers, Loch leven, London Bridge, Mary Queen of Scots, metal detecting, Michaela Strachan, mudlarking, Norfolk, Northallerton, Portable Antiquities Scheme, Raksha Dave, Scotland, scuba-detecting, Sheriff Hutton, Southwark Cathedral, Wars of the Roses

There are several interesting archaeology series on television and Channel Five has now joined in with an ensemble programme, headed by two familiar personalities (Dan Walker and Michaela Strachan) and a similarly ubiquitous chief archaeologist (Raksha Dave), but with more of an emphasis on metal detecting for the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, including Roman…
More coins found in Suffolk

Sep 1, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles

Ashbocking Hoard, Carry On Cleo, coins, East Anglian Daily Times, George Ridgway, invasions, Julius Caesar, Kenneth Williams, metal detecting, Roman Britain, Suffolk

Gaius Julius Caesar (left) may not have spent much time in Britain during his invasions of 55-54 BC, but his troops and their followers left rather a lot of evidence. Here, the East Anglian Daily Times details a hoard found in Ashbocking during 2019, consisting of 180 silver denarii and provisionally valued at £65,000.
Found in Devon …

Jun 25, 2022

anniversaries, archaeology, art, buildings, religion

Africa, British Museum, coins, Devon, Eleanor of Provence, Fitzwilliam Museum, gold pennies, goldsmiths, Henry III, metal detecting, Spink Auctions, William of Gloucester

We often feature very old coins unearthed. This one was found by metal detecting in a field somewhere in Devon and dates from Henry III‘s reign. It was part of a special consignment of pennies, minted by William of Gloucester with African gold. It features the Great Pavement of Westminster Abbey, which he updated, and…
Lucy Worsley “proves” Richard III murdered his nephews….!

Jun 12, 2022

battles, buildings, genealogy, law, religion, Science, sources, television reviews, The play’s the thing

“Princes”, ambush, Battle of Bosworth, BBC2, bias, bigamy, bones, British Museum, Charles II, coins, Coronation, Dighton, Domenico Mancini, dressing-up box, Edward IV’s will, Elizabeth Wydeville, executions, Forrest, Henry VII, Hicks, illegitimacy, James Butler, JCB, Lord Protector of the Realm, Lucy Worsley, Ludlow Castle, Matt Lewis, More, Old St. Paul’s, pre-contract, Ralph Shaa, Richard III, Richard of Shrewsbury, scoliosis, Sir Anthony Wydeville, Stony Stratford, Tanner and Wright, Tim Thornton, Tower of London, Turi King, Tyrrell “confession”

Episode 3 of Lucy Worsley‘s latest TV series is about The Princes in the Tower, and from the outset it’s clear that Lucy is Lady Dracula, because she goes for Richard III’s jugular at every opportunity. The thought that he might be innocent doesn’t seem to occur to her because she’s utterly convinced of…
TWO ANGELS, TWO BUCKINGHAMS

May 22, 2022

anniversaries, art, buildings, genealogy, heraldry, religion, travel

Buckingham, Buckingham Museum, coaching inns, coins, corbels, crown, Dukes of Buckingham, Edward III, Edward IV, gold half-angel, Grantham, Great North Road, Knights Templar, Phillippa of Hainault, Richard III, Sir Isaac Newton, St. Michael, St. Wulfram, swan

A nice little pre-Christmas break took me to two towns of interest, Buckingham and Grantham. I wanted to see Buckingham museum which is currently hosting a Richard III display featuring the gold Half Angel found in the fields nearby. It was a nice little collection and the info panels were mercifully free of too many…
The house where a 14th-century hoard was found in the 18th century….

Apr 29, 2022

archaeology, battles, buildings

coins, Edward III, Fenwick Tower, Hundred Years War, Hunterian Museum, Northumberland, property sales, Richard II, treasure

Well, another hoard. OK, it was a while ago, but it’s still a hoard. I’m so jealous. I want to find something important from the past, especially the medieval past. However, I have to be satisfied with my bits of clap pipe and Victorian pottery, This article tells of gold coins of Edward III…