The Shrewsbury Hoard (also known as the Shropshire Hoard) is a

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

of 9,315 bronze

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, denomi ...

discovered by a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...

ist in a field near

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

in August 2009. The coins were found in a large pottery storage jar that was buried in about AD 335.

Discovery and excavation

The coins were found buried in a brown pot in a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

next to a public

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding horses, riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now s ...

by Nic Davies only a month after he had started metal detecting as a hobby, and were his first find. Davies did not have permission from the landowner to metal detect on his land, not realising that it was a requirement, and when he located the hoard he dug up the pot himself, although he subsequently took it to show Peter Reavill, the

Portable Antiquities Scheme The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme begun in 1997 and now covers m ...

Finds Liaison Officer for Herefordshire and Shropshire. Davies later led Reavill and

Shropshire County Council Shropshire County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire in England. History The Council came into its powers under the Local Government Act 1888 on 1 April 1889 and was known as Salop County Council from for ...

archaeologists to the find site, and a small excavation was carried out. The excavation revealed that the pot had probably been placed in the ground partially full (with coins dating to about AD 320), and that the pot had subsequently been filled up with coins dating to AD 333–335 before being covered with a large marker stone. The top of the pot had broken off, and about 300 scattered coins were recovered from the area around the find spot. The total weight of the pot and the coins was approximately . After the excavation was completed, the hoard was sent to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London for cleaning and conservation.

Items discovered

The coins are all bronze and silver-washed bronze ''

nummi New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) was an American automobile manufacturing company in Fremont, California, jointly owned by General Motors and Toyota that opened in 1984 and closed in 2010. After the plant was closed by its owners, th ...

'', and date to the period between AD 313 and 335, corresponding to the latter part of the reign of

Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

and the period of joint reign of his three sons, Constantine II,

Constantius II Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...

and

Constans Flavius Julius Constans ( 323 – 350), sometimes called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of ''caesar'' from 333, and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great. After his father's death, he was made ...

. There were also a very few radiates dating to AD 260–293. In addition to the coins, an iron nail and a piece of cloth were found towards the bottom of the pot. It is very unusual for organic material such as cloth to survive, but the copper from coins prevented the decay of the cloth in this case. It is thought that it may be the remains of a cloth bag that closed with a nail, and put in with the coins as a votive offering.

Significance

Although the coins are not individually valuable, the large number of coins in the hoard makes it important. Reavill has speculated that as Britain produced food for export to other parts of the Roman Empire during reign of

, the coins may represent payment to a farmer or farming community for a harvest, and that the money may have been buried for safe-keeping, with money being withdrawn when needed.

Display

On 25 October 2011, a coroner's treasure inquest declared that the coins were treasure under the terms of the

1996 Treasure Act The Treasure Act 1996 is a UK Act of Parliament, defining which objects are classified as treasure, legally obliging the finder to report their find. Provisions The Act is designed to deal with finds of treasure in England, Wales and Northern Ire ...

. The hoard will be valued by the

Treasure Valuation Committee The Treasure Valuation Committee (TVC) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) based in London, which offers expert advice to the government on items of declared treasure in England, Wale ...

, and a reward will be paid to the landowner and the finder. Normally, the market value of the hoard, as determined by the Treasure Valuation Committee, would be shared equally by the landowner and the finder, but under the terms of the 1996 Treasure Act, if the treasure was discovered whilst trespassing (as was the case with the Shrewsbury Hoard) the finder may get a reduced reward or no reward at all.

Museum Service acquired the hoard (Museum accession number: SHRMS:2013.00) and as of May 2021 it on permanent display in the Roman gallery the at

Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery was founded in 1835 as the Museum of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society Society in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, England. In 1853 the collections were moved to Vaughan's Mansion on Coll ...

References

External links