The collection of 131 coins and 4 gold objects found in West Norfolk Oil Field dates back to around 600 AD

The Guardian’s Nadia Khomami reported that the early medieval gold coin discovered by two people with a metal detector was the largest of its kind ever discovered in England.

Buried in what is now West Norfolk around 600 AD, the treasure house of 131 coins and 4 gold objects is larger than a collection found in Sutton Hoo in 1939. (Earlier this year, the Netflix movie The Dig regained people's attention to the excavation work and unearthed a wallet containing 37 gold coins, 3 blank gold plates, 2 gold ingots, and other rare artifacts.) Found this The area of ​​the two treasure troves-now East of England-was once part of the Kingdom of East Anglia.

"This is a very important discovery. It is close to the famous ship burial in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk. Although it does not contain as much gold as the entire Sutton Hoo tomb, it contains more coins." Early curator Gareth Williams (Gareth Williams) said of the British Museum's coins in a statement. "In fact, this is the largest known coin vault of that period so far."

Before the newly announced cache was discovered, the largest known coin storage room in the early Middle Ages (approximately 410 to 1066 AD) was a purse containing 101 coins discovered in 1828 in Crodall, Hampshire. According to CoinWeek's Michel Shutterly, the so-called Crodall Hoard was lost or hidden between 635 and 650. Most of the coins are gold coins called thrymsas. A separate treasure house discovered in Staffordshire in 2009 was the largest precious metal treasure house of the period, but there were no coins in it.

According to the Evening Standard, an anonymous person discovered most of the West Norfolk coins in a field between 2014 and 2020. In addition, a local policeman searched the same area with a metal detector and found 10 coins, but failed to report his findings to the authorities as required by law. He was convicted of deception, sentenced to 16 months in prison, and was expelled by the police in 2017.

"The West Norfolk hoard is a very remarkable discovery, and it will provide a fascinating counterpart to Sutton Hoo on the other side of the East Anglia Kingdom," said Helen Geek, the Nocock Discovery Liaison Officer, in a statement. "It underscores the value of metal detection evidence in helping to reconstruct the earliest history of England."

According to the statement, most of the coins are Frank Tremis coins, which are small gold coins minted in present-day France in the late antiquity period (around 284 to 700 AD). The cache also contains nine gold coins, which is a larger coin from the Byzantine Empire, worth about three.

In addition to coins, treasure hunters also found many gold objects: a bract or a stamped pendant; a small bar; and two other fragments that may belong to larger jewelry. The existence of these items indicates that the former owners of these coins used them as gold bars, valuing them based on their gold weight rather than their denomination as currency.

According to Tessa Solomon of ARTnews, the Norfolk coroner is currently investigating to determine whether the treasure meets the criteria for a treasure. According to the Treasures Act of 1996, only public-discovered items that are more than 300 years old, made of gold or silver, or found with cultural relics containing precious materials can be designated as treasures. Once declared a treasure, cultural relics become state property and handed over to the authorities for display in national or local museums.

ARTnews pointed out that the Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery are interested in acquiring the Norfolk Treasure with the support of the British Museum.

Last year, the British government announced plans to re-examine its narrow legal definition of treasure. As Caroline Davies wrote for The Guardian at the time, rare items that do not fall under this definition are usually sold to private collectors, thereby preventing the public from viewing and researching national heritage items.

"This discovery of international significance reflects the wealth and continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia," Tim Pestel, senior curator at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, said in a statement. "The study of hoards and their discovery has the potential to unravel our understanding of the early trading and exchange system and the importance of West Norfolk to the kings of East Anglia in the 7th century."

David Kindy is Smithsonian's daily correspondent. He is also a journalist, freelance writer and book critic based in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He has written history, culture, and other topics for aerospace, military history, World War II, Vietnam, aviation history, Providence magazine and other publications and websites.

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