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Description: | Treasure case: 2006 T298 - Coin Forger's HoardBritish Museum Report:"Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, find (2006 T298), amended reportI have examined two groups of objects reported found at Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire. The first consists of 19 objects recovered in 2003-5. This find consisted of three groups of material: 1. eleven small pieces of plate metal; 2. seven clippings from silver coins; 3. a poorly-preserved whole coin. A second batch of material was reported found on the site in October-November 2006: this batch consists of 8 clippings of sheet metal and a second counterfeit coin.1. Plate metalThese 11 pieces of metal in the first group range from in weight from the heaviest (3.2g) down to the lightest (0.16g). They appeared to be silver but were tested in the British Museum's Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science (the report from that department is attached: analysis report 1). This exercise showed that all but one (no. 9) were substantially of good silver, in the range 96-99% fine metal. The exception was a lump of tin alloy, which had no precious metal content. One piece (no. 2) includes a shaped impression, suggesting that it is a fragment of an artefact. The 8 pieces of metal from the second group are mostly smaller. Analysis showed them to be of good silver, ranging again from 96 to 99% fine metal (see analysis report 2). One of the pieces (no. 1) also seems to be the fragment of a larger artefact.2. Coin clippingsThese 7 clippings all come from the first group and appear to have been taken from official English silver coins. The identifiable pieces are definitely or probably clipped edges of halfcrowns and shillings from the first, hammered, issue of Charles II, produced in 1660-2 and it seems likely that all the coins originate in this period. Two clippings were analysed along with the plate metal for comparative purposes, and these gave levels of fineness of 96 and 98% silver. In fact this is higher than the official sterling standard of the coinage (92.5% fine metal), but this is the consequence of the method of testing (confined to the uncleaned surface) and two well-known circumstances: the mint's practice of 'blanching' the coin to draw silver to the surface, and the effects of corrosion on copper alloy during burial, which means the surface layer of a mostly silver object is almost always poorer in copper than fresh metal under the surface3. Whole coinsIncluded in the first group was what appears to be a shilling of King Charles I from the early 1640s. This was judged to be a counterfeit, because of the apparently poor quality of its metal. Scientific analysis was requested to confirm this, which was indeed the result (see analysis report 1). A further coin was recovered with second batch. Although in a much worse state of preservation, it appears to be a shilling of the first half of the 17th century and is probably also a shilling in the name of Charles I. Like the first coin, this looks to be a base-metal counterfeit, as analysis supports (see analysis report 2).ConclusionsMost of the objects found at Stocksbridge are of good silver. Their likely nature seems to be that they are in some sense a forger's hoard. Although not very common, a number of hoards of coin clippings from the 17th century have come to light in the past. It was usual for silver coin clippings then to be recycled as counterfeit coin and there are many cases in English monetary history of clippers and forgers being the same people. In this case, a small group of coin clippings and a group of fragments of silver from other sources seem to have been set aside to use as raw material. It may be that the intention was to melt this metal down to form the silver plating or wash over copper-alloy cores for a relatively large number of counterfeit coins. Curiously, it is the actual counterfeit coins from a slightly earlier period that is something of an odd group among the objects. Perhaps they were the remnant of an earlier counterfeiting exercise by the person who assembled this body of new material.It seems to me that, since they are mostly of good metal and were gathered as part of the same process before deposition, there is a strong case for regarding the group of material found at Stocksbridge as Treasure under the terms of the Act.Dr Barrie J. CookCurator of Medieval and Early Modern CoinageDepartment of Coins and MedalsBritish MuseumLondonWC1B 3DG29 August 2006; amended 11 April 2007"20
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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