I'm sure there are portion of us for whom this treasure trove recalls fond childhood memories of reading Dahl's short story The Mildenhall Treasure, a creative account of real events in 1942 surrounding the controversial finding of a huge cache of 4th century Roman silverware - one of the other great historical hoards dug up in modern Britain.
Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
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Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#32One wonders if they are worth face value given inflation. It would be a fun exercise to figure out their value in pounds sterling and then calculate what that number would be in the present. That said, my kids and I buried 50 copper coins in a forest in the sierras, perhaps a thousand years from now the aliens visiting our dead planet will find them. :-(
> perhaps a thousand years from now the aliens visiting our dead planet will find them. :-( aliens will likely find us the same way we find dinosaurs but probably no one will find us. 1000 years from now things will be very different but i suspect humans will still exist. imo we as a species have very little chance of living 1M years, tho.
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Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
(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.
If I was looking for one of those coins as a gift for a friend who is very into ancient Greece, where would I go? Bearing in mind that I know nothing about ancient Greece and coins in equal parts.
Do you have a coin shop in your town? If you do they tend to have a bit of everything (though most likely a focus on coins from the country you live in) and should have a few moderately priced ancient coins to choose from.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
(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.
Will the number of coins in the OP cause prices to drop?
I don't think so - hoards like this tend to get found often enough and as far as I know the market for these sorts of coins hasn't cratered in recent times.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#35So metal detection to search for historical artifacts is legal in UK, illegal in Ireland?
Is there any place where metal detection to search for historical artefacts is illegal on private land?
Most countries have similar rules, and that's also the standard (rarely prosecuted) view in international law. The general rule of thumb is that antiquities belong to the state, anything else (like treasure hoards in the UK) is an atypical exception.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#36A 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.
Yes, exactly. Relative to roman coins there are much rarer limited run coins or accidents that have a lot of value now. But there are also rare-ish coins that no one cares about, like things minted specifically for collectability, say some hypothetical, commemorative Princess Diana coin that got made and marketed to rip people off who bought into the idea it would gain value.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#37One wonders if they are worth face value given inflation. It would be a fun exercise to figure out their value in pounds sterling and then calculate what that number would be in the present. That said, my kids and I buried 50 copper coins in a forest in the sierras, perhaps a thousand years from now the aliens visiting our dead planet will find them. :-(
Why would our planet be dead in 1000 years? And why did you decide to have children if you believe that?
Just how long are you expecting their children to live?
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#38A thousand year old coin for $1000? That seems rather cheap.
You used to be able to get uncleaned late Roman bronze coins from the Balkans for about a buck apiece in the early 2000s, so I’d guess they’d be maybe $3-5 each now. Then you get the fun of very carefully removing the encrustations to reveal the coin underneath. You generally ended up with a coin worth about what you paid for it, but it was fun.
You still can. The Balkans is pretty widely known as a major center for trafficking looted antiquities, including coins.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
wonder how much that coin is worth now vs how much it was worth in 300 Bc
Prices in Ancient Greece in Athens in the 5th century BC 1 loaf of bread 1 obolos The standard rate for a prostitute 3 oboloi 6 oboloi are 1 drahma, about 4 drahmai to the shekel. That coin is 1/16 shekel, so about 1.5 loaves
Either bread was expensive or hookers cheap.
Re: Hoard of coins from Norman Conquest is Britain's most valuable treasure find
#40So metal detection to search for historical artifacts is legal in UK, illegal in Ireland?
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-...