Ipswich Museum has announced it will be displaying the biggest hoard of Iron Age gold coins ever found in Britain after raising the £316,000 needed to buy the collection.
Around 840 gold coins were found in a field in Dallinghoo near Woodbridge, in the so called Wickham Market Hoard during 2008. After being confirmed as the largest hoard of iron age coins ever found in Britain, the Ipswich Museum started a campaign to keep the coins local and prevent them being bought up by private collectors.
With the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £225,900, the museum has now bought the coins which go on display at Christchurch Mansion from today in a special exhibition.
Caroline McDonald, Ipswich Museum curator of archaeology, told the BBC: “They’re hugely significant – it’s a once in a lifetime discovery.”
The coins which pre-date the Roman invasion of Britain, prove that the “pre-historic” times weren’t all about hunting animals and living in caves, but were infact a time of sophisticated society with monetary systems, and sophisticated metal working and exchange of goods and services between tribal regions – in this case most likely between the Iceni and Trinovantian tribes.
Half the money from the museum will go to Cliff Green who owns the field, and the other half will be split between Michael Darke and Keith Lewis who found the hoard.
There’s a video on the BBC video showing the Iron Age gold coins collection here.
More Ipswich Links:
Christchurch Mansion information
Ipswich Museum details
Visitor attractions in Ipswich
Hotels in Ipswich, Suffolk
Ipswich self-catering cottages
Wikipedia details on the Wickham Market Hoard
2 Comments
Just got one quick question, who hoarded them all this time? Was it a private individual or an institution?
As I understand it, the coins were held by a government dept until they could be declared as treasure trove or not.
In this case it seems they weren’t treasure trove and thus belonged equally to the landowner and the finder according to English common law (under the “law of finders”). The museum then bought them from said people for display.