Ancient coins found on special school's campus
Treasure hunter Iain Fraser has found coins dating back to the mid 1500s at Hannahs school campus at Seale-Hayne.
Mr Fraser obtained special permission from Hannahs to detect the land at Seale-Hayne.
After a quick look at some old maps he started searching in the corner of a field which was near the old farm, in those days known as 'Houghton Barton'. Within two hours he had found six post-medieval silver hammered (hand struck rather than machine made) coins. A couple of days later he found two more in the same area.
This number of coins constitutes a scattered hoard with the plough dispersing them over a small section of the field over the course of the last 400 years. Among the coins were a King Edward VI sixpence 1547-1563, four Queen Elizabeth I sixpences late 1500's, a King James I shilling 1603-1625 and a King Charles I shilling and a sixpence 1625-1649. Other lesser important finds included Georgian copper coins from the early 1800's and a George III sixpence.
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The Coins are currently with the finds liaison officer in Exeter and she will be sending them onto the British Museum to go through the treasure finds process. Mr Fraser reported the find in accordance with the 1996 Treasure Act which states that any more than two coins over 300 years old and of high silver or gold content must be reported. The coins might have been deposited in the ground for safekeeping but never reclaimed or it could have been a purse drop whereby somebody lost their purse by accident.
Rodger Jackman from Hannahs said “Hopefully, Iain’s knowledge and experience will help to give us a better historical understanding of Seale-Hayne and he has already found some items of great interest”.
Comments
by CharlieDodd
Wednesday, January 02 2013, 12:20PM
“Us kids used to run home from school through the fields on the outskirts of Leicester in the 1960's and part of our route took us through an ancient moated site. The moat had long since dried up and I once found a single 1797 George III coin and an old sword in it.
Soon after, the whole site was bulldozed and flattened and a petrol station and houses were built on it but I often wonder if there's a stash of coins and other stuff down there?”