Amazing Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found in England

[supercorgi]

Amazing find in England. Probably the most amazing hoard found yet:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215723/Staffordshire-hoard-Amateur-treasure-hunter-finds-Britains-biggest-haul-Anglo-Saxon-gold.html

[madurobob]

Did you notice this bit?
‘I have this phrase that I say sometimes – “spirits of yesteryear take me where the coins appear” – but on that day I changed coins to gold,’ he said.

‘I don’t know why I said it that day, but I think somebody was listening and directed me to it. Maybe it was meant to be, maybe the gold had my name on it all along.


Oh, the dowsers will be happy! It wasn't the metal detector, it was the spirits!

[lionking]

Worth at least a million quid in a report I saw. I wonder where the hoard will go on display?

[rjh01]

It is worth more than money. We do not know much about the time period. The find may increase our knowledge.

[UnrepentantSinner]

I saw a news report today that says the find will put Sutton Hoo to shame. What a wonderful find and I loved the treasure hunters story.

[MG1962]

So does this mean Britian officially came out of recession today?

[Vortigern99]

As an erstwhile student of the so-called Dark Ages, I find this discovery absolutely fascinating. Evidently the hoard is so rich that we'll have to re-think our assessment of the economics of the period. If a lord of some kind (or possibly an early "Angle-ish" king -- who knows?) was wealthy enough to amass all of these coins and ornamental items, then his vassals and/or enemies were probably fairly well-off, too, which means that various kinds of industry were also faring well, indicating that life may have been at least comfortable even among the lower classes, especially craftsmen and metallurgists. I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but this is pretty awesome stuff!

[atavisms]

Worth at least a million quid in a report I saw. I wonder where the hoard will go on display?

As 'treasure' found on English soil it automatically belongs to the crown!
At least that's what I heard on the news.

The best treasure hunting story Ive heard was that of the The Atocha.
What a story! If u'r not familiar with it, look it up. The man looked every day for 12 years I believe, he went into massive debt, and then one day, he hits the mother lode! Worth a heck of a lot more than a million dollars.

[Madalch]

I've read about this on another forum, and the general concensus was that he should have kept it quiet, melted it down, and kept it all.

Not a very intellectual forum, that one.

[ugot2bekidding]

This story gave me flash-backs (I used to be heavily into D&D). :D

[Madalch]

This story gave me flash-backs (I used to be heavily into D&D). :D
Ah- you know the forum I was talking about, then?

[Lucian]

As 'treasure' found on English soil it automatically belongs to the crown!
At least that's what I heard on the news.

The best treasure hunting story Ive heard was that of the The Atocha.
What a story! If u'r not familiar with it, look it up. The man looked every day for 12 years I believe, he went into massive debt, and then one day, he hits the mother lode! Worth a heck of a lot more than a million dollars.

If it's considered to be treasure trove, I believe it legally belongs to the landowner. That is what happened with Sutton Hoo. Mrs. Pretty, the landowner, was declared the legal owner of the treasure, but she donated to the nation.

By the way, as I was checking this, I found out some information about the discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial that I hadn't known:

Edith May Pretty J.P. lived in Sutton Hoo house and owned the estate at the time of the discovery, having moved there with her husband in 1926. Around 1900 an elderly resident of Woodbridge had spoken of 'untold gold' in the Sutton Hoo mounds,[2] and Mrs Pretty's nephew, a dowser, repeatedly identified signals of buried gold from what is now known to be the ship-mound.[3] Pretty became interested in Spiritualism, and was encouraged by friends who claimed to see figures at the mounds.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo#Discovery

Maybe we should call it "Sutton Woo."

[LibraryLady]

I saw this on the news tonight and I was completely wowed. I've seen some of the Sutton Hoo treasure, when I was in England, and this looked amazing. I can't wait to read more!

[geni]

Worth at least a million quid in a report I saw. I wonder where the hoard will go on display?

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the short term. Longer term some of it will likely end up in the british museum.

[dudalb]

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in the short term. Longer term some of it will likely end up in the british museum.

Monday Morning, I guarantee you the British Museum will be drawing up premlinaty plans for an expansion of the Sutton Hoo Wing.....

Fascinating find. At the SCA Event we (my wife and I) are going to this evening it will be a main topic of discussion.

[Big Les]

As 'treasure' found on English soil it automatically belongs to the crown!
At least that's what I heard on the news.


Not quite. The proceeds of the sale will be split 50/50 between landowner and finder. The Treasure Act 1996 dictates that initial offers of sale must be to museums, but if no museum can afford it, it's possible to sell on the market. In a case like this though, museums and funding bodies would pull out all stops, and could also put in an export block on it to allow more time to organise funding.

[pakeha]

Thanks for the news.
Beautiful goldwork, indeed.