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Friday, July 6, 2012

A Roman hoard of coins is discovered in a field in Jersey.

 "Earth pantry, bone vault,
sun-bank, embalmer
of votive goods
and sabred fugitives."  -  Seamus Heaney

A large hoard of Roman coins has been discovered deep beneath the earth in a secret location in Jersey. 

Both Jersey Heritage and the Societe Jersiase have said "this is a significant find" and have had their experts investigating the site.

It was found by Reg Mead and Richard Miles, who have been searching for over thirty years, in a field, east of the island.


Weighing around a ton the estimated 50,000 coins have a guesstimate value of over £10,000,000.


The photos following relate a later discovery of a flattened gold torque, a silver knotted object and what may prove to be a solid gold object all poking out of the damp, corroded mass of coins.


Phillip De Jersey, a former Celtic coin expert from Oxford, said "It is extremely exciting and very significant. It will add a huge amount of new information, not just about the coins themselves but the people who were using them.

"Most archaeologists with an interest in coins spend their lives in libraries writing about coins and looking at pictures of coins.

"To actually go out and excavate one in a field, most of us never get that opportunity. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity."




















Whilst we all quietly gazed at this extraordinary sight Neil added a chilling note " Whoever the slaves were that buried these coins will almost certainly have been killed so that the secret of where it was buried remained only with the owner. One can only guess what happened to him as he never returned to claim his treasure."