COIN HOARD

A group of silver hammered coins fused together by corrosion. There are approximately 25-30 in total, but the condition of the coins makes it impossible to indicate the exact number. Only three of the coins have more than a fraction of one side visible, and even these are heavily worn and corroded, making a precise identification impossible.

The finder discovered the coins in his scrap bucket in April 2010, but does not know when he found them, nor which county he discovered them in. The findspot could be Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, or Suffolk amongst others. Nevertheless he declared them as possible Treasure. The coins were brought to the British Museum and conserved to aid in identification. It was established that they could not be separated without risk of damage. One side of one coin is more legible as a result of the conservation, and while it is still impossible to distinguish individual letters, it is possible to establish something of the design. While it is conceivable that the design includes a single word between two lines across the centre of a field within an inner circle inside an inscription (consistent with the PAX types of Harold II and Henry I, it seems more likely that what appears to be an inner circle is accidental damage, and that the two lines extend almost to the edge of the coin, creating an inscription in three lines, with the top and bottom lines enclosed in horizontal D-shapes, or lunettes. This is consistent with type a of the 'Lunettes' coinage issued by Burgred of Mercia (852-74), Æthelred I of Wessex (865-71) and as the first type of Alfred of Wessex (871-74). It seems on balance probable that these coins are all of the Lunettes type, but this example cannot be attributed to a particular ruler or moneyer, and the rest not even to sub-type.