A treasure hunter has unearthed modern Britain's biggest haul of prehistoric gold coins - using a metal detector.
The collection of 824 gold staters was found in a broken pottery jar buried in a field near Wickham Market, Suffolk.
Jude Plouviez, of the Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, said the coins dated from 40BC to AD15 and were thought to have been minted by predecessors of Boudicca - the Iceni Queen who spearheaded a revolt against occupying Roman forces.
I would love to find just one of these, but unfortunately the Iceni probably didn't drop any coins in Wisconsin or Minnesota. I'm puzzled by these two statements in the press release:
Their value when in circulation had been estimated at a modern equivalent of between £500,000 and £1million...
We don't know how much they will be worth [now, at the treasure trove inquest] but it will be less than they were at the time...
So in Queen Boudicca's day the coins had a value equivalent to about £1,000 each? A stater was supposed to be worth a couple drachms, and a gold stater 20-28 drachms, when a drachm was typically a skilled worker's daily wage. A gold drachm would then be a skilled worker's monthly wage.
When I looked at eBay today I saw completed sales of Celtic gold staters from the same time period at prices about $600-800. Why would they be worth less now than they were when the Romans were confronting the Iceni? I'll have to think about this...
comparing euro to dollar is somewhat like comparing apples to oranges, have you checked on the exchange rate?
ReplyDeleteYes, I am aware of the exchange rates. That's not the problem.
ReplyDeleteapparently, gold is worth less now than it was then - which isn't that surprising considering modern mining technology
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