British couple were making repairs in their garden when they noticed something strange in the soil
SÃO PAULO, SP (UOL/FOLHAPRESS) – Couple discovers by chance, in Milford on Sea, in the south of England, a treasure with 64 gold and silver coins from the 15th and 16th centuries. The collection will be auctioned in November, in Switzerland, with an estimated value of more than R$1.6 million.
British couple were making repairs in their garden when they noticed something strange in the soil. While adjusting a fence, they dug a little deeper and noticed something metallic under the ground. When cleaning the place, they discovered dozens of coins hidden for centuries.
The find occurred in April 2020, in the village of Milford on Sea, in the Hampshire region, in the south of England. According to expert David Guest, from David Guest Numismatics, the set contains coins minted between 1420 and 1530, a period that covers the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII, according to information from Fox News.
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“They were turning over the earth and all of a sudden these coins started popping out of the ground? miraculously,” Ian Richardson of the British Museum told The Guardian.
RARE COINS AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Among the 64 coins, there are rare examples with the initials of three of Henry VIII’s wives. They are Catherine of Aragon (K), Anne Boleyn (A) and Jane Seymour (I). The letter “I” was used in place of “J” in English writing during Tudor times.
“Placing the wives’ initials on the coins was a very strange and, from a numismatic point of view, very interesting decision,” curator Barrie Cook also told The Guardian.
The treasure was valued at £230,000 (around R$1.6 million). It will be auctioned on November 5th, in Zurich, by Numismatica Ars Classica. Guest believes that the final value could exceed the forecast. “I am very confident that the final price will be significantly higher than the initial estimate,” the expert told Fox News Digital.
HIDDEN TREASURE IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
The set was buried in the late 1530s, when its value was more than the average price of a house in rural England at the time. “It was a considerable amount of money. It is estimated that in the 1530s the average value of a property was £25,” Guest highlighted.
The numismatist believes that the treasure was hidden amid the political instability of the English Reformation, when Henry VIII broke with the pope and dissolved the ancient monasteries. “While we will never know why or by whom the treasure was buried, it was almost certainly hidden during the first turbulent phase of the Reformation, when the king dissolved the monasteries and confiscated the wealth of the Catholic Church,” Guest told Fox News.
Experts from the British Museum confirmed that the coins are in excellent condition. The find was officially registered in the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a database that documents archaeological discoveries in English gardens, fields and sites. “You don’t find big gold hoards from this period very often,” researcher John Naylor, from the University of Oxford, told The Guardian.
After analyzing and returning the coins, the family decided to send them to auction. All proceeds will go to the discoverers.
