Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find

Post by arethuza » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 9:23 AM UTC

hnburnsy wrote: post #27

From the article... >A hoard of Norman-era silver coins unearthed five years ago in southwestern England has become Britain’s most valuable treasure find ever, after it was bought for £4.3 million ($5.6 million) by a local heritage trust. Different article about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure... >The exact value of the Sutton Hoo treasure isn't widely known, in part because the items in the treasure have ne…

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 9:24 AM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #40

rajamaka wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any place where metal detection to search for historical artefacts is illegal on private land?

Ireland "It illegal to use a detection device to search for archaeological objects anywhere within the State or its territorial seas; without the prior written consent of the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht" (Note "anywhere") https://www.museum.ie/en-ie/collections-research/the-law-on-...

Post by CodeCompost » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 9:35 AM UTC

nlh wrote: post #5

kadushka wrote: post #2

A thousand year old coin for $1000? That seems rather cheap.

(Professional coin nerd here) You’d be surprised! It’s all about supply and demand. You can get very common Ancient Greek coins from 300 BC (eg ~2300 years old) for $50 these days. For example: https://coins.ha.com/itm/ancients/greek/ancients-phoenicia-s... Of course you can also get rare ones for $thousands or $millions. All about who cares and how many there are.

Post by kasey_junk » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 1:49 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #46

ChuckMcM wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you done any comparative economics? That is where you take what it "cost" in terms of money for goods or services at a given time and compare that to the cost of the same (or equivalent) goods and services in the present time. Some things like property ownership won't work because the rules changed so much between then and now but meals? Etc? might work.

It depends a lot on the basket you are choosing. Picking the 'BigMac index' might be fun, ie you try to price a Big Mac. (Since the Big Mac doesn't contain any tomatoes, you could probably have made a reasonable Big Mac clone in the Middle Ages.) It gets ridiculous, if you go by the price of eg the amount of computation a human can do in a year. Or 'ice cubes in the height of summer'.

Post by almost » Mon, Oct 28, 2024, 2:16 PM UTC

gausswho wrote: post #58

The article's image of the hoard shows, off to the sides, various coins that look sliced in half. Did this modification occur to coins during this time period? Did the coins remain valid but half their value? If so, how many times could a coin be subdivided?