Iron Age Gold Unearthed in Suffolk Field

[EZ_E]

2000 year old gold hoard

 

Iron Age Gold Unearthed in Suffolk Field

 

[font:Comic Sans MS]In spring 2008 a hoard of 783 ancient British gold coins was discovered by a metal detectorist near the village of Wickham Market in southeast Suffolk, England. It is one of the largest hoards of Iron Age gold coins ever found in Britain and is one of the most important because it was unearthed virtually in situ, where it was buried 2,000 years ago in an earthenware pot.

 

A small-scale excavation of the hoard site, jointly funded by the British Museum and Suffolk County Council, was conducted last Oct. 14-15. The two-day dig revealed that the hoard had been deposited within a ditched enclosure of late Iron Age date and produced 42 more gold coins, bringing the total to 825. Two intersecting ditches were partially excavated; the shards of wheel-thrown pottery found in them suggest one was open in the late Iron Age and the other was dug and filled in later during the Roman period.

 

All but two of the 825 gold coins were minted in East Anglia by the Iceni, Queen Boudica's tribe. The two "foreigners" came from Lincolnshire. Five of the gold coins - the earliest in the hoard - were made about 40-30 B.C. They are known as Snettisham Type after a hoard excavated at Snettisham, Norfolk, in 1987-1989. The vast bulk of the Wickham Market hoard - 818 coins - are all Freckenham Type gold staters, named after the 90 or more found in a pot in a garden at Freckenham, Suffolk, in 1885. They were minted over a period of two or three decades, probably sometime around 20 B.C.-15 A.D., perhaps by two or three different rulers of the Iceni who may have governed concurrently.

 

John Talbot, a specialist in the Iron Age coinage of East Anglia - he is also chairman of the English National Ballet and managing director of Johnson Cleaners - visited the excavation and believes that the Wickham Market hoard may have been buried sometime around 15 A.D. or shortly afterward. During the past nine years, Talbot has made a detailed die study of more than 9,000 coins of the Iceni and is regarded as the foremost expert in this field. His deposition date of approximately 15 A.D. therefore carries some weight - a welcome bonus for Suffolk archaeologists who are accustomed to working with much broader chronologies in the Iron Age.

 

The main part of the hoard came to light last Easter when Michael, a 60-year-old motor mechanic, was detecting on farmland on the outskirts of Wickham Market (old English wic-ham means "homestead associated with a vicus," i.e. an earlier Romano-British settlement). He had been metal detecting in the area for 25 years, on Sundays and bank holidays, but had never found a gold coin before. After consulting an old map, he decided to explore a field that had been under pasture for almost 30 years.

 

At first he found very little - just a rusty iron nail. Then on Sunday, March 16, 2008, he found his first gold coin. He looked on the Internet and identified it as a Freckenham gold stater. By the next weekend the field lay under a thin carpet of snow and it was freezing cold. Undeterred, Michael returned to the meadow on Easter Day with his Minelab Quatro detector and, despite a blizzard of sleet that would have kept most folks indoors, found another eight gold staters within close proximity to the first.

 

Then, to quote his own technical terminology, "my machine suddenly went doolally and I knew for sure I was standing right on top of a crock of gold."

 

He marked the "hot spot" with a couple of stones and, showing remarkable self-control, walked away from it and went home for tea. He said: "I thought to myself, these coins have been waiting 2,000 years for me to find them, so they can wait one more night for me."

 

On Easter Monday, March 24, Michael returned to the "hot spot" and sunk his spade into the sticky clay that had not been plowed since 1980 - "it was like cutting slices of chocolate cake" he said - and carefully dug out 774 gold staters. Most of them lay only 6 to 8 inches below the surface and many were still nestling in the base of a black earthenware pot; the top of the pot had been broken by a plowshare, scattering the coins across 5 to 10 meters. When he got home he washed the coins in warm water and then handed them over to the landowner, who immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service.

 

When I met Michael at the excavation, I asked him how it felt to find a hoard of gold coins.

 

"Like winning the lottery," he replied. "But it's not the money that interests me. It's the history that turns me on. I've been collecting old coins all my life and this gold hoard is the find of my lifetime. No, I don't care what it's worth and I don't want the publicity either. I'm old enough to remember when Mr. Tricker found five gold neck torcs at Belstead in 1968. He got £45,000 for them and told me that he was forever being pestered by people looking for a handout. So please keep my surname out of this. Just call me Michael."

 

It will be some months before the finder and landowners find out what the Wickham Market gold hoard is worth. Ian Leins, curator of Iron Age coins at the British Museum, has prepared a detailed report of the coins with the assistance of John Talbot. This report will be submitted to Dr. Peter Dean, Her Majesty's Coroner for Suffolk, who will hold an inquest on the coins, possibly around Easter this year. After that the Treasure Valuation Committee will determine what their current market value is with the help of independent valuers. Trying to guess at this stage what their total value may be is futile. All one can do is say that Spink's Coins of England (2009) prices a Fine Freckenham Type gold stater at £250 and a Very Fine one at £700.

 

What might the Wickham Market hoard have been worth 2,000 years ago? Once again, we are entering the realms of speculation. My guess is that the hoard originally contained 900 gold staters and that there are still some hiding in Wickham's sticky clay. What would 900 Freckenham type staters have been worth when they were buried early in the first century A.D.?

 

Dr. John Sills, an expert in early Gaulish and British gold coinage, said: "Your question is almost unanswerable. It's meaningless to ask what the modern value of an ancient coin is likely to have been because the ancient Britons couldn't buy a TV set or fridge and because we don't buy spears or shields for everyday use. Almost the only transaction for which we have documentary evidence is the purchase of military service in the third and second century B.C., where a gold stater perhaps bought around a month's service in the third century B.C. and five gold staters an infantryman for the duration of a campaign in the second century B.C., with ten gold staters buying a cavalryman. Everything else is speculation."

 

But it's fun to speculate, isn't it? In 1996, when the Alton, Hampshire, hoard was discovered, Dr. Roger Bland and John Orna-Ornstein of the British Museum both suggested that each gold stater was likely to have been worth in the region of £1,000 when minted. Bearing in mind Dr. Sills' comments on military pay, that sounds plausible to me. Guessing that the Wickham Market hoard may originally have comprised 900 gold staters, I fancy that the hoard may have been worth around £1 million to the person or persons who buried it. Possibly more, in my view, but probably not less, despite the fact that these Freckenham type staters are base gold staters - what dealers like me euphemistically call "rose gold: staters - with an alloy mix of about 40 percent copper, 20 percent silver and only 40 percent gold. As soon as we place a notional ballpark figure of around £1 million for the Iron Age value of the hoard, we begin to realize how very important these gold coins must have been to their owner or owners.

 

Who accumulated and buried the Wickham Market hoard? And for what purpose? The sheer quantity and value of the original deposit - possibly 900 gold staters worth the Iron Age equivalent of at least £1 million, according to my estimate - indicate that the coins must have belonged to no less than a wealthy king (or queen) of the Iceni or southern Iceni, or to the people they ruled. In other words, it could conceivably have been a communal hoard, collected and buried for the benefit of the community. Such a huge accumulation of gold cannot plausibly have been the savings of a rich merchant, a prosperous farmer, a skilled craftsman or a mercenary warrior. Its owner must surely have been a tribal king. If the gold coins belonged to a king, then it was most likely a king of the Iceni who ruled immediately prior to King Anted (or one of his co-rulers).

 

For what purpose would such a large sum of money have been accumulated? Was it the lifetime "savings deposit" of a king who died (or was killed) without telling Mrs. King where he had stashed the royal family fortune? Or were all these gold coins collected to make a very specific and very important payment of some kind? If so, to whom and to what end? The fact that the Wickham Market hoard comprises solely gold staters - no gold quarter staters, no silver coins, no gold jewelry, no gold or silver bullion - and the probability that they were mostly minted within 20-30 years of deposition suggests to me that they were hoarded, and hoarded very quickly, to make a specific payment.

 

But what sort of payment? Three possibilities occur to me: 1. The hoard was a votive offering, made on behalf of the tribe during a period of anxiety. 2. The hoard was a "war chest" in waiting, gathered in anticipation of an imminent military threat. 3. The hoard was harvested as a tribute payment to a more powerful tribal king. I'll briefly examine these three possibilities.

 

1. Votive offering? It may be significant that the Wickham Market hoard was buried close to the boundary (a liminal locus) of a ditched enclosure which was itself close to the southern tribal border of the Iceni (another liminal locus). Several large Iron Age coin hoards were deposited on tribal borders, which some consider were of sacral import. Was this ditched enclosure a sacred place?

 

In 1994 I argued that the infamous "Bowl hoard" - an undeclared collation of about 7,600 silver coins, 600 gold and billon staters, 108 gold quarter staters, plus silver bullion, night-hawked at Snettisham, Norfolk, in 1991 - was "a gift to the gods," and a coroner's jury agreed with me. However, the Wickham Market hoard is, in my view, of a completely different character (gold staters only) and of a different date (much earlier) than the Bowl hoard. I think it was secular, not sacrificial.

 

2. War chest? The decade of 10-20 A.D. seems to have been a time of great change in East Anglia and was perhaps a time of great threat to the Iceni, whether real or perceived. Tasciovanos, "killer of badgers" and king of the Catuvellauni for 30 years, had died around 10 A.D. and his son, Cunobelin, had captured Camulodunon (Colchester) and had presumably made the Trinovantes of Essex allies of the Iceni in the Boudican rebellion subservient to the Catuvellauni. During 10-20 A.D. Cunobelin apparently strengthened the Catuvellauni's control of the Cantiaci in Kent and, by about 35 A.D., his uncle Epaticcus had crossed the Thames and taken Calleva (Silchester) from the Atrebates.

 

It is therefore entirely likely that the Iceni saw Cunobelin as a potential threat to their security - he may even have challenged them in combat - and prudently laid hoards of gold staters in store, in readiness for a military campaign against the aggressively expansive Catuvellauni. At the time of the Gallic War (58-50 B.C.), and for three centuries before it, gold staters are thought to have been the payment of choice for tribal fighters and there is no reason to suppose that a warrior's preference for wages of gold had changed by 15 A.D.

 

I think that the Wickham Market gold hoard could well have been a war chest in waiting. After all, Wickham Market is only 27 miles from Cunobelin's Colchester and only five miles from the late Iron Age fort at Burgh, which may also have come under his control by 15 A.D. (crockery from the kilns of Camulodunon has been found at Burgh).

 

Three other hoards of Freckenham type gold staters - Freckenham 1883 (90+ staters), Swaffham(?) 1995 (c. 50-60 staters), West Runton 1990s (c.70-80 staters) - are all of similar composition to the Wickham Market hoard (nothing but gold staters). This may imply that they were all accumulated at around the same time and for the same purpose: to fund an anticipated military defense of Icenia. If so, why did the Wickham Market hoard stay in the soil? Was its owner killed? Did Cunobelin change his mind about invading the Iceni? Or was he bluffing?

 

3. Tribute money? Coin finds indicate that Addedomaros, king of the Catuvellauni (c. 45-25 B.C.), not only ruled in Hertfordshire, but also occupied Suffolk. There is numismatic iconographic evidence, albeit flimsy, that his proximity to the Iceni may have prompted a political alliance between the two tribes - an alliance of compliance, with the Iceni as the weaker partner.

 

When Cunobelin invaded the Trinovantes sometime around 10 A.D. he may have scrapped this putative treaty and demanded a massive payment of tribute from the Iceni in exchange for not invading them too. Were the Wickham Market and other Freckenham hoards collected as tribute money? If so, why weren't they paid?

 

Before we fantasise further about the Wickham Market hoard, we need more information about its archaeological context. For example, what was the purpose of the ditched enclosure? Residential? Or religious? Or what? At the very least a geophysical and topographic survey is required.[/font]

[supertooth]

Victor---- Really neat article. I enjoyed it.

 

We have friends that were born and raised in Wales. The grandfather has a farm there. I'd be willing to bet that every kid that has access to a metal detector has tried his hand at it recently. Makes for a "fun" day. Bob [supertooth]

[michael]

neat

 

how long will it take the finder to get paid??

 

and will he split it with the landowner??

[PerryHall]

I'd like to see what these coins look like. I imagine they are quite crudely made.

[EZ_E]

I was wondering the same thing. If anyone has a follow up to this story then please share!

[Observer44]

I noticed that while searching with his metal detector it went DOOLALLY. Does this remind you of anyone. It would be great if it was our Dooly. John

[EZ_E]

There are many different types of staters depending upon where they were minted.

 

Here is an example of a Obverse of Celtic Gold Stater of Cunobelin.

 

 

Reverse of Celtic Gold Stater of Cunobelin

 

 

 

 

Gold Coins

Four millennia of gold coin production and use - a brief history.

 

The First Gold Coins

 

Lydia 643 BC

In about 643 to 630 B.C., the Lydians had started to produce the first coins. They were quite crude, and were made of electrum, a naturally occurring pale yellow mixture of gold and silver. These first coins were similar in composition to alluvial deposits found in the silt of the River Pactolus, which ran through the Lydian capital, Sardis.

 

The Midas Touch

These gold deposits were believed to have originated by King Midas washing himself in the river to cleanse himself of his "golden touch" which had the inconvenient effect of turning even his food into gold.

 

Gold And Silver

By about 560 B.C., the Lydians and Ionians had learned how to separate the gold from the silver, so that King Croesus was able to issue the world's first bi-metallic coinage. Bi-metallic in the sense that there were gold coins and silver coins. Shortly afterwards, in 546 B.C., Croeseus was captured by the Persians, who came to adopt gold as the main metal for their coins.

 

Gold Or Silver?

The Greeks to the west of Ionia believed that silver should be the main metal used for coins. Following this there have, for most of history, been regions which favoured silver and other nations which favoured gold as their main coinage and currency metal. Where the two existed side by side, then gold was usually considered the more important. In most cases, ready availability of one metal rather than the other exerted a practical influence over the choice.

 

The Celts

In Britain and elsewhere, a number of Celtic tribes issues coins in gold, silver, potin, and base metals. The Celts were here before the Romans, some became assimilated into Roman civilisation, others moved or were defeated. It is often stated that they left no written records, but this is inaccurate as some of their coins were inscribed. Please see the magnificent Celtic gold stater in our photograph. It bears the inscription "CUNO" an abbreviation for Cunobelin, a chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe. It constitutes a written record, as do all the other inscribed Celtic coins, however most Celtic coins are unfortunately uninscribed. They also clearly show that the Celts used written language, even if other evidence is not extant.

We feel tempted to add the joke that Cunobelin invented his own language which was named after him, although we cannot remember the name of the language, it is on the tip of our tongue!

 

The Romans

The early Roman Republic issued few coins in gold, their main coinage being in silver, with bronze or copper for small change. From the death of Julius Caesar, gold coinage came to be an important part of the Roman coinage system. The Romans took a very practical view in exploiting natural resources in the areas of their conquest, and issued coins in gold, silver, and copper according to the resources of the region.

 

The First Sovereign

 

The First One Pound Coin

The gold sovereign came into existence in 1489 under King Henry VII.

 

The Pound Sterling

The pound sterling had been a unit of account for centuries, as had the mark. Now for the first time a coin denomination was issued with a value of one pound sterling. This new coin weighed 240 grains which equals 0.5 troy ounces or 15.55 grams, and was made using the standard gold coinage alloy of 23 carat, equal to 95.83% fine.

 

The First Design

The obverse design showed the King seated facing on a throne, a very majestic image. It is from this image of the monarch or sovereign that the new coin gained its name - the sovereign. The reverse type is a shield bearing the royal arms, on a large double Tudor rose.

One of the reasons for the issue of the sovereign was to imitate similar large gold coins being produced on the Continent, another was to impress Europe with the power, prestige and success of the new Tudor dynasty.

 

Leading Designer of the Age

For the introduction of this important new coin, and later the shilling, the leading German engraver Alexander of Bruchsal was commissioned.

The new sovereign has been described as "the best piece ever produced from the English mint".

Alexander came to be described as "the father of English coin portraiture".

He also produced the testoon or shilling of which it has been said that "modern coinage begins with the shilling of Henry VII".

 

Doubles and Trebles

A double or treble sovereign was also issued for Henry VII from the same dies as the sovereign, but thicker and heavier. These were possibly intended solely as presentation pieces.

This first sovereign occurs with a number of minor type variations all of which are rare, currently cataloguing from £7000 upwards.

 

Henry VIII And The First Half Sovereign

Sovereigns were then struck for Henry VIII from 1509, and a half sovereign was also introduced during his reign.

In 1526 the official value of English gold coins was raised by 10%, making a sovereign worth 22 shillings (22/- or 22s.), and then shortly after they were again revalued to 22s6d. A number of new gold coin denominations were introduced with a lower gold fineness of "only" 22 carat, equal to 91.66%.

In 1544 a lighter sovereign was issued, weighing 200 grains, but still in 23 carat gold alloy.

 

Edward VI

Under Edward VI, sovereigns, half sovereigns, and double sovereigns were struck. His first sovereigns, issued between January 1549 and April 1550, were only in 22 carat gold. From 1550 to 1553, "fine" sovereigns were once again issued with a value of thirty shillings, and also a "standard" sovereign at twenty shillings.

 

Mary

During the sole reign of Mary, "fine" sovereigns were struck with a value of thirty shillings (30/- or 30s.), but during her slightly longer joint reign with Philip, no sovereigns were issued.

 

Elizabeth I

During the long reign of Elizabeth II, "fine" gold sovereigns, with a very high (99.4%) gold content, continued to be issued with a value of thirty shillings. A separate one pound gold coin was also issued, obviously with a value of twenty shillings.

 

James I - The Unite Appears

In the first coinage of James I, from 1603 to 1604, sovereigns of twenty shillings were issued before being discontinued, the previous pound coin was made lighter and renamed as a "unite". So after 115 years, this was the last sovereign to be issued until the emergence of the modern gold sovereign in 1817.

 

Unites Laurels and Guineas

The Unite Replaces The Sovereign

From James I's second coinage in 1604, the sovereign was discontinued in favour of the "unite", also valued at one pound. It was called a unite to mark the unification of England and Scotland upon the accession of James VI of Scotland to the British throne, as James I of England.

 

The Laurel Comes and Goes

In 1612 the unite was revalued at 22 shillings, and in 1619 was replace by a lighter one pound coin known as the laurel. The laurel weighed 140.5 grains.

 

The Unite Continues

The unite was continued in the reign of Charles I, being again valued at twenty shillings, and continued in production during "The Commonwealth", and the early hammered coinage of Charles II until 1662.

 

Machine Made Guineas Arrive

With the introduction of regular machine made "milled" coinage under Charles II, the guinea was introduced in 1668. It was so called because the gold from which many were made was imported from the African state of Guinea by the Africa Company. The badge of logo of The Africa Company was an elephant and castle (howdah), and this symbol, or sometimes just the elephant appeared on many of the guineas.

 

When a Guinea was a Pound

When the guinea was originally introduced it had a value of twenty shillings, Because of the inflationary effects of war, the value of the guinea soon increased to 21 shillings. By March 1694, it had reached 22 shillings, and in June 1695 reached a peak of thirty shillings. At this crisis point, there followed great public debate, which included figures such as Sir Isaac Newton, as to whether the solution was to devalue the gold coinage or to restore the silver coinage. Restoration won, and 1696 saw a great "Silver Recoinage", at the same time the principle was established that the pound sterling would be a fixed weight of gold, and this principle effectively created the "gold standard". The guinea continued to be the main gold coin until 1813 under George III.

The Modern Sovereign

 

New Coinage - New Mint

In 1816, there was a major change in the British coinage, powered by the Industrial Revolution. The Royal Mint moved from The Tower of London to new premises on nearby Tower Hill, and acquired powerful new steam powered coining presses designed by Matthew Boulton and James Watt. the modern sovereign was born!

 

Saint George & The Dragon

A new reverse design was introduced featuring Saint George slaying a dragon, designed by a brilliant young Italian engraver, Benedetto Pistrucci. This beautiful classic design remains on our gold sovereigns today, almost two hundred years later, and for most of its life must have been one of the worlds most widely recognised coins.

 

Gold Gives Way To Paper

 

The First British Paper Money

Although the first "banknote", actually a goldsmith's note, known to exist was issued by Laurence Hoare in 1633, and the earliest known cheque was issued in 1659. Paper money did not supersede metal until the second decade of the 20th century.

 

Royal Mint Stops Gold Sovereign Production

During the first world war, Britain needed gold bullion to finance the war effort. Banknotes were introduced into regular circulation, and within a few years, the gold sovereign ceased to be used in everyday transactions. Production at the Royal Mint stopped in 1917, although some were minted again in 1925.

 

Commonwealth Mints

The branch mints continued to produce sovereigns, Ottawa in Canada until 1919, Bombay in India in 1918, Sydney Australia until 1926, Melbourne and Perth Australia until 1931, and Pretoria South Africa until 1932.

 

1933 - The End of The World for Gold Coinage

By 1933, almost the whole world had stopped production of gold coins for circulation. We can find only seven countries which issued gold coins in 1933, and most of those were commemorative, historical, or medallic issues, not intended primarily for circulation. Of these, the lowest listed catalogue value is for Czechoslovakian One Dukat pieces, which contain about one ninth of an ounce of fine gold; their catalogue value is about three times their intrinsic gold value, and we very seldom see gold coins of this date.

There are a number of other similar dates during which there were very few gold coins minted.

 

The Investment Market

A number of countries continued to issue gold coins for purchase by investors in the period from the end of the first world war. This has usually been to supply domestic demand for citizens to maintain a "hedge" against currency fluctuations or failures, and against political upheaval. Central and National Banks will have kept many of the previously circulating gold coins as part of their gold bullion holdings, many will have been melted down, and others will have been re-issued to meet demand.

 

Premium Prices

Increasingly from about 1914, gold coins were traded at a premium to their gold content, especially as most countries did not regularly issue any new gold coins. Certain gold coins have been internationally recognised, these include the British gold sovereign, the American double eagle, and the Swiss twenty francs. Many other types of gold coins had a popularity within their more immediate neighbouring countries, with linguistics also playing their part in the supply - demand situation. There is an obvious logic and attraction in using gold coins whose inscriptions the owner could easily read.

 

Low Premiums & International Bullion Coins

With the introduction of the Krugerrand in 1967, South Africa became the first country to issue a modern, low premium, bullion gold coin. The most obvious attribute of the Krugerrand which clearly contributed to its success, was its convenient and easy to remember gold content - exactly one ounce. Almost all previous gold coins contained odd amounts of gold, which makes it more difficult to know or calculate quickly the precise value of ones investment.

Such was the success of the Krugerrand, or Kruger, as it is familiarly known, that many millions were produced. In 1980, South Africa introduced fractional sizes containing a half ounce, quarter ounce, and tenth ounce of fine gold. Numerous other countries also copied the South Africans and produced their own versions of one ounce gold bullion coins, and usually the fractional sizes also.

 

Special Occasions

In Britain, no further sovereigns were then issued until 1957, although sovereigns were included in the George VI proof set of 1937 which was available for collectors, and sovereigns were also minted but not issued for Edward VIII in 1937, and for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Many countries now issue gold coins to commemorate special occasions, and for sale to collectors. Although the one ounce bullion coins were intended for investment use, there are many who collect them by date and type, some world mints have recognised this, and produce attractive and varied designs in their bullion coin series, together with proof versions. A well designed coin can rightly be considered as a miniature work of sculptural or medallic art.

[kryptonitecomics]

Great read and thanks for the pictures....as a former detector owner who never found anything worth a darn after years of looking I must say this guy Michael get's a big "YOU SUCK" from me

[Schatzy]

WOW.....great story!!