IRON AGE GOLD COIN HOARD TO BE DISPLAYED

A "one-of-a-kind" cache of 933 Iron Age gold coins whose finder was convicted of attempted theft is to go on permanent display close to where it was discovered.

The Great Baddow Hoard, which was found in 2020, is a "nationally significant" find because it is Britain's largest recorded Iron Age gold coin hoard, according to experts.

It was declared treasure by a coroner and has been acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford, Essex, after receiving a £250,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant.

Curator Claire Willetts said it "could have been intended as a tribute payment to Roman general Julius Caesar".

The hoard come from a time when Iron Age tribes first began minting their own coins using regional dies (metal stamps) and it was found with fragments of a possible container or vessel.

Possible leather fragments and a red glass item were found with coins, such as this Norfolk wolf stater, according to the British Museum

It is the first archaeological evidence of aggression between two neighbouring Iron Age tribes, Trinovantes and Catuvellauni, said the museum's curator, Claire Willetts.

"The hoard's discovery in what is traditionally considered Trinovantian territory at Great Baddow may indicate movement or influence from western tribal groups into the east, potentially aligning with accounts of upheaval during Caesar's second invasion of Britain in 54 BC," she said.

Previously, the only evidence of this was in Roman sources.

Essex finds liaison officer Lori Rogerson described it as "a nationally significant discovery".

"In the coming years, visitors seeing the hoard at the Museum of Chelmsford will be in awe at its size and gold content and they'll be led to ask questions such as, 'Who owned such a large stash of precious coins?' and, 'Why was it put in the ground, never to be returned to?'", she said.

Having remained in the earth for more than 2,000 years, a metal detectorist found the collection on private land, but he had not sought permission to detect there.

To read the complete article, see:
Largest Iron Age gold coin hoard 'one of a kind' (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3nz54eegko)

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