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Description: | ADDENDUM: This hoard of coins was originally beleived to consist of forgeries & blanks of contemporary Early Medieval date but following the reporting of these coins (to a FLO outside of the Lincolnshire area) it came to light that local sites were known to be 'seeded' with modern day forgeries. XRF testing also proved inconclusive in dating these coins to an earlier period. The items are now understood to be modern in date & additional coins and blanks have been found since these were reported.Original Report: The find consists in 20 contemporary forgeries of Anglo-Saxon coins of the early eighth century, 16 blank flans apparently designed for the same purpose, and one partially prepared flan, which had received a design around the edge, but not the main design. Around 27 of the objects were found in a space 3' by 3', with the remainder in a wider area around the same spot of 9' by 9'. The deepest of the objects were around 4" deep. The close correspondence in size and weight between the false coins and the blank flans, together with the close proximity of the finds, leaves no doubt that these should be seen as a single hoard.The find appears to represent the stock in trade of an Anglo-Saxon forger. The twenty coins were struck from two obverse dies and at least two reverse dies (a fuller examination is not possible without conservation). Estimates of the volume of coin production indicate that it should have been possible to produce thousands of coins from a single set of dies. The blanks associated with the false coins clearly indicate a stockpile ready for striking further false coins. All of the coins are intended to appear to be silver pennies (sceattas) of Series E, dating from the first half of the eighth century. The real coins were predominantly issued in Frisia (modern Belgium and the Netherlands), but there are a number of variations within the series, some of which were produced in England. The metal content of the coins has not been tested by scientific analysis. They appear to be a lead alloy, probably with some silver content, but not necessarily above the 10% threshold used to identify coins as 'precious metal' under the terms of the Treasure Act (1996). However, the number of coins means that the precious metal content is less important than it would normally be. The Act specifies that there should be two or more coins of precious metal, or ten or more of base metal. With twenty examples which can be considered as coins, this find meets that criterion, with the blanks then to be considered as Treasure by association. One could argue that as forgeries these do not technically constitute coins, but they were certainly intended to circulate as coins, and when freshly struck their appearance would not have been radically different from official coins of the period, which were also comparatively base, although normally above the threshold. Certainly normal practice in a hoard which combines both official coins and contemporary imitations is to include the imitations in the total. While the Act does not specifically address this issue, and is ambiguous on whether or not imitations should be considered as coins, in my opinion both precedent and the spirit of the Act indicate that the forgeries should be considered as coins for the purposes of the Act, and therefore as Treasure by virtue of their number. Metal analysis could be undertaken if required, although this would add a further delay to the process. The other key criterion of date is clearly met in this instance, as the objects are well over 300 years old. It is therefore my recommendation that the twenty forgeries constitute Treasure under the terms of the Treasure Act (1996), with the remaining flans to be considered Treasure by association.
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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