Betty and Robert Fooks 17th century. unearthed the treasure unexpectedly in his cottage at South Poorton Farm, Dorset, in 2019. The coins have now gone to auction and sold for $75,900 (about €70,600), according to Dorchester-based auctioneer Duke’s.
Robert Fooks made the discovery while using a pickaxe to remove a floor layer about 0.6m thick, made up of modern concrete, ancient pavement and plain earth. A man found a broken glazed ceramic vessel stuffed with coins in a layer of soil about 400 years old. According to the auction, it is unclear whether the vessel was broken before the discovery or during Fooks’ work.
The couple contacted a local official who arranged for the coins to be sent to the British Museum, where they were cleaned and identified, according to The Guardian. The British Museum noted that the coins were likely hidden sometime between 1642 and 1644. (these dates are probable based on mint dates).
Dubbed the Poorton Coin Hoard, the hoard includes coins ranging from humble sixpences to gold ‘unite’ coins depicting the English monarchs Edward VI, Mary I and her husband Philip II Habsburg, Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, who ruled in succession from 1547 to 1649, effigies.
April 23 at the auction, most of the coins were sold individually or in groups. The highest price of £5,000 (about €5,800) was paid for a single Charles I gold coin.
It is likely that the period of hiding the coins is 1642-1644. – coincides with the first English Civil War, which lasted from 1642 to 1646. Three civil wars were fought between the English monarch Charles I and supporters of Parliament in order to balance the power between the Crown and Parliament.
“Perhaps the most important short-term significance of the Civil Wars was that they ended with the execution of King Charles I in 1649. and for the first time in the history of England, a republic was established, which existed for 11 years,” says Waseem Ahmed, a doctoral candidate in history at University College London, who specializes in the 17th century. in British political history, but was not involved in the discovery or analysis of the treasure.
It is not surprising that people hid their money back then – because during military operations, the property of opponents was confiscated, he explains.
“If you were a royalist or suspected of being one, your property could be sequestered (confiscated) by the pro-parliament side or vice versa,” says Ahmed. This could also be relevant in the 17th century. to the owners of the house – because Dorset was the focus of the troop movement and subsequent unrest.
It is likely that Poorton’s hoard of coins was buried by someone in the hope of retrieving it later. And although the treasure was indeed saved, something apparently happened to its first owner, Live Science writes.
