52,000 Roman Coins Discovered In Southwestern Britain
July 12th, 2010 - 8:09 pm ICT by Pen Men At Work
July 12, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): A hospital chef, Dave Crisp has discovered 52,000 Roman coins while looking for metal objects in a field close to Frome, in southwestern Britain. These coins were worth at least $1 million and were buried in the field, informed the British Museum on Saturday.
The coins were found in a pot, which weighed 160 kg. The archaeologists were called by the Somerset County Council to excavate the hidden pot. Out of these coins, 766 had the image of the Roman general Marcus Aurelius Carausius, who had been the ruler of Britain from A.D. 286 to 293.
The coins bear the dates from A.D. 253 to 293 and these are made of debased silver and bronze. The excavated coins are now in London at the British Museum, where they were cleaned properly and recorded.
Crisp, the amateur treasure hunter said, “I could not realize the actual size of the pot when I discovered it. When the archaeologists unearthed, I was surprised to see the huge size.”
Roger Bland, an official at the British Museum added, “This is the largest discovery ever in a single pot and in Britain it is the second largest discovery.”
In the beginning, Crisp discovered 21 coins but later after uncovering the pot, he realized the need of archaeological help to excavate. The pot looked like a container usually used to store food.
Roger Bland, added, “Crisp has done the right thing by calling up the archaeologists. He did not try take out all of them on his own. We think, the person who buried the coins, never intended to recover it. This may be buried as an offering to the gods as people used to do earlier.”
Tony Williams will hold an investigation on July 22 to formally establish whether the discovery is subject to the Treasure Act of 1996.
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Tags: 1 million, actual size, archaeologists, british museum, chef dave, crisp, discovery, hidden pot, london, marcus aurelius, men at work, pen men, roman coins, roman general, ruler, somerset county council, treasure act, treasure hunter