The Canterbury-St Martin's hoard is a coin-hoard found in the 19th century at

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

dating from the 6th century. The group, in the World Museum, Liverpool, consists of eight items, including three gold coins mounted with suspension loops for use as

pendant A pendant is a loose-hanging piece of jewellery, generally attached by a small loop to a necklace, which may be known as a "pendant necklace". A pendant earring is an earring with a piece hanging down. Its name stems from the Latin word ...

s. One of these is the Liudhard medalet, the earliest surviving

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

coin. Another coin is in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Discovery and publication

The hoard was found some time before 25 April 1844, when some of the items from the find were first discussed at a meeting of the

Royal Numismatic Society The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

by Charles Roach Smith. All that Smith knew of the date when they were found was that it was "a few years since", as he wrote in 1844. The location of the hoard is usually given as the

churchyard In Christian countries a churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church, which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language and in both Scottish English and Ulster-Scots, this can al ...

of St Martin's Church in Canterbury. However, the first publication about the find, by Smith, states that the find was on the "grounds of the monastery of St Augustine".Quoted in Adby and Wiliams "A Catalogue of Hoards" ''Coinage and History'' pp. 15–16 The objects were acquired by W. H. Rolfe, a resident of

Sandwich, Kent Sandwich is a town and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, south-east England. It lies on the River Stour and has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including sev ...

, in two stages, a first acquisition of three items acquired before April 1844, and five more items procured soon after September 1844.Grierson "Canterbury (St Martin's) Hoard" ''Dark Age Numismatics'' p. 39 The first three items were first published in 1844 in '' Collectanea Antiqua'', and when the five further items were obtained, that publication was amended to reflect the new items. Smith then published the entire contents of the hoard in the '' Numismatic Chronicle'' in 1845. The items in the hoard have been examined by

x-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

and fluorescent. The author of this study, S. C. Hawkes, argues that the eight items in the hoard were found in different graves. However, the historian Philip Grierson felt that the possibility of two graves from different time periods both containing coins of the same period was so small as to make the likelihood of the hoard coming from two graves slim.Grierson "Canterbury Hoard" ''Dark Age Numismatics'' Corregida p. 5 The hoard is the only late-6th- or early-7th-century find of gold jewellery in a grave in a churchyard.Blair ''Church in Anglo-Saxon Society'' p. 61 All of the coins in the hoard were probably part of a necklace that was buried in a woman's grave. One of the items in the hoard, the Liudhard medalet, is the earliest surviving

coin.Gaimster
Scandinavian Gold Bracteates
''Medieval Archaeology'' p. 7

The known objects in the hoard are eight items: * An Italian

tremissis The tremissis or tremis (Greek: τριμίσιον, ''trimision'') was a small solid gold coin of Late Antiquity. Its name, meaning "a third of a unit", formed by analogy with semissis (half of a unit), indicated its value relative to the sol ...

with an inscription dating it to the reign of Emperor

Justin II Justin II ( la, Iustinus; grc-gre, Ἰουστῖνος, Ioustînos; died 5 October 578) or Justin the Younger ( la, Iustinus minor) was Eastern Roman Emperor from 565 until 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I and the husband of Sophia, the ...

, who reigned 565 to 578 * The Liudhard medalet, an

gold coin or medallion, dating from the late 6th century * A gold coin imitating a 4th-century bronze coin, featuring two soldiers on one side * A

solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry) In chemistry, materials science, and physics, the solidus is the locus ...

with a bust on one side * A Frankish tremissis of Merovingian date minted at St Bertrand-de-Comminges * A Frankish tremissis of Merovingian date minted at Agen * An intaglio of Roman manufacture set in gold * A circular brooch The first three items listed were the original items acquired by Rolfe, with the others being acquired later. Besides these eight items, it appears likely that at least one other item originally was found with the above items:Grierson "Canterbury (St Martin's) Hoard" ''Dark Age Numismatics'' pp. 39–40 * A coin with an inscription of Oloron set in a loop, which is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale There may have been other items that were found with the hoard, but their identification is not possible.

Ownership and current location

Besides the Oloron coin, which is at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the other eight items are at the World Museum Liverpool.Werner "Liudhard medalet" ''Anglo-Saxon England 20'' pp. 27–28 From Rolfe, the eight items were acquired by Joseph Mayer, who gave them to the City Museums of Liverpool, which became the World Museum later.Staff
British Antiquities
World Museum Liverpool

Citations

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Canterbury-St Martin's hoard 6th-century works 1844 archaeological discoveries Anglo-Saxon art Gold coins Anglo-Saxon money Collection of the World Museum Hoards of jewellery Treasure troves in England Treasure troves of Medieval Europe History of Canterbury Hoards from Anglo-Saxon Britain Coin hoards

Discovery and publication

Contents

Ownership and current location

Citations

References