Owner Comments:
Henry VII, 1485-1509.
From the New Forest Hoard, found April 6, 2020. Treasure no. 2020 T333 / PAS HAMP-EC901C-14*
This is one of the six coins recovered in the archaeological excavation marked with an asterisk at the end of their PAS numbers. This excavation was in October, 2021, after the family had recovered the initial 64 coins on their own.
AV Angel, type IV, London, im: greyhound's head 2. Struck 1502-1504.
St. Michael, spearing dragon, crosslet ends to spear, HENRIC'. DEI.' GRA'. REX. Z. FR', rev. PER. CRVC' TVA. SALVA. NOS. RED', ship bearing royal arms, cross on mast above, dividing H and rose, saltire/rosette stops. 5.14 g.
PW IV, dies 1(2)2; SCBI 23, 39/41 - same obv./rev. dies; N.1697; S.2185.
Some light marks. Good VF.
NGC AU-55
On the 26th of March 2020 the UK went into lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Largely confined to their homes many people responded by taking a renewed interest in that deeply rooted British pastime: gardening. Thus, on the morning of the 6th of April 2020 in a garden in the New Forest district of Hampshire, a married couple (we shall call them Mr and Mrs W. for they understandably wish to remain anonymous), found themselves adjusting the fence that divided one of their flower beds from a small stream. Whilst digging around a fencepost, Mr W. noticed a cluster of thin circular objects in a lump of clayey soil. He placed the lump on the decking at the back door of the house and continued the task at hand. Later that afternoon, one of the couple’s teenage sons, whose curiosity had been aroused by the mystery objects, washed them off under the garden tap. Glinting in the spring sunshine were a handful of gold coins. He promptly started to research the coins on the internet and discovered they were some five hundred years old and potentially of considerable historic and commercial value. So, while the rest of the world struggled to find activities to fill the seemingly interminable hours of lockdown, one very fortunate family spent several happy weeks digging in their garden for buried treasure, aided by the arrival of a metal detector hastily ordered online. In total they found sixty-three gold coins and one silver. An initial appraisal was made at the British Museum where the hoard was deemed Treasure. It was featured in the December 2020 report of the Portable Antiquites Scheme receiving extensive national and international media coverage.
Given the importance of the discovery, it was decided that an archaeological excavation of the site should be carried out. This took place in October 2021 and a further six gold coins were recovered, bringing the total number of coins in the hoard to seventy. No trace of a container was found by the family or the archaeologists. Having been valued by the Treasure Valuation Committee the hoard was returned to the finders in 2023 as no museum was in a position to acquire it. The New Forest Hoard is made up of coins of five different denominations, four gold and one silver. Each denomination was the principal coin struck in its respective metal and period of production. The gold denominations represented are the Noble (1 example in the hoard), Ryal (4), Angel (60), and Crown (4). The one silver coin is a Groat of Fourpence. These denominations span three successive currency periods from the high medieval age to the early modern.