A pot of 52,000 Roman coins — the largest haul discovered in a single vessel in Britain — will be put on display at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton after a successful fundraising campaign (Jack Malvern writes).
The museum has paid £320,000 for the Frome Hoard, which Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, found in a field last July using a second-hand metal detector. A further £100,000 was raised for the conservation of the coins. The profit from the sale will be split between Mr Crisp and the field’s owner.
The third-century coins, estimated to be equivalent to four years’ pay for a Roman soldier, include rare examples of money minted by Emperor Carausius, a rogue general who broke away from the rest of the empire and set up his own dominion in Britain. He was deposed by his finance minister.
The hoard challenges historians’ understanding of why the Romans buried coins. The pot appears to have been buried in the ground before the coins were poured in, possibly in a single event, as a token of gratitude to the gods.
A second hoard, of Iron Age gold jewellery discovered near Stirling, was also acquired by a national museum yesterday. Four torcs, or neck ornaments, will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh after £462,000 was raised. The intricately designed ornaments were found in September 2009 by David Booth, on his first outing with a metal detector.
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