Incredible collection of rare coins found in a field, sold for £325,000

RARE coins believed to date from 1066 have sold at auction for a whopping £325,000.

A collection of 122 Anglo-Saxon pennies, discovered by two metal detectors near Braintree in Essex, sold at auction for an eye-watering £325,560.

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The coins, found by two opportunistic metal detectorists, are believed to be buried in 1066, the year of the battle between English and Norman armies for the throne of England.

An expert said there was a “tantalising possibility” that the reason they were not retrieved at the time was because their owner died in the battle.

They were sold on Wednesday at Noonans Mayfair in London.

Wow, this exceeded all our expectations.

Nigel Mills

The coins were expected to sell for no more than £180,000, with the proceeds of the treasure to be split between the two finders and the landowner.

Nigel Mills, artefacts and coins expert at Noonans said: “The atmosphere in the packed sales room was euphoric with bidders – in person and online – wanting to purchase just one example from this important collection.”

Colchester Museum and Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum bought 16 of the 144 coins found by the two metal detectorists.

The coins purchased by the museums included two Byzantine coins from the 11th century.

At the end of last year, the remaining coins were rejected and returned to the finders.

A rare example from the Hastings mint topped the list when an online bidder bought it for £24,000, four times its pre-sale estimate.

Noonans Coin specialist Bradley Hopper said: “While the deposition of the Braintree Hoard may not be directly linked to the events of 1066, the fact that it was never recovered was.

‘Twelve shillings was a considerable sum of money, and its recovery must have been prevented by some great personal misfortune; we cannot say with any certainty whether or not the owner of the Braintree treasure was killed in the fighting at Hastings, but it is a tempting possibility.”

The two detectorists, who had been searching together for twenty years, had previously only found copper coins and crystal bells.

However, their luck turned when their metal detector found a silver cent that was unrecognizable.

About six more turned up within a 100-foot radius and that evening they realized they were Harold II’s rare pennies.

Over the next few days, about 70 more were found through slow and methodical use of the detectors.

This was repeated in 2020 with another 70 coins uncovered.

The landowners attended the sale and said afterwards: “We are delighted with the results, which is a life-changing amount of money for the finders.”

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