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archaeologist in England have unearth a cache of 321 silver coins in mint condition on the construction site of a atomic power plant . The coin were wrapped in fabric and lead , suggest their owner may have been trying to protect them while burying them to avoid having them sequester .
The coins — some of which are from little , rural mints , and therefore quite rare — date to between 1036 and 1044 . This mean they coincide with the start of the Anglo - Saxon king Edward the Confessor ’s reign , a riotous period of English history during which the power exiled and confiscated the properties of several elites who had fallen out of his favor , accord to astatement .
Archaeologists found the coins wrapped in a cloth and lead package.
The eleventh - 100 time value of the coin hoard , amounting to 320 penny , would have been a sizable sum for most people at the time — enough to buy about 16 cows , say Alexander Bliss , a coin specialist with Oxford Cotswold Archaeology ( OCA ) , the brass that excavated the coins .
" Perhaps the owner of the cache was concerned about the Modern regime [ or ] political situation and wider societal unbalance , taking steps to hide their wealthiness , " Bliss told Live Science in an email . " There are now three stash from this period ( 1042 to 1044 ) known across England , which strengthens the musical theme that the first years of Edward ’s reign were not tranquil . "
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A close-up of silver coins excavated at the Sizewell C construction site.
Anglo - Saxon coin hoards are comparatively rarefied , Bliss tell , and the newly unwrap hoarded wealth stands out because archaeologists excavate it in its original context , with a keep material pocket still holding the coin . Many coin hoards lack such setting , either because they have been disturbed by farming activity or because some metal detectorists do n’t immediately recognize the significance of broken case and leave it behind .
" In this illustration , carry on the pouch was very authoritative because it forms part of the overall ' objective ' as one element of containment for the coin , " Bliss said . " We also desire to understand whether the trail was just a spell of tabloid or had been detached from a declamatory target . "
Archaeologists undid the sac in a science lab and find that the booster cable wrapping was manufactured from folded rag , hint that the possessor of the stash took care when inter it and used a case he or she knew to be sturdy .
base on the archaeologic record , lead canvass was not an uncommon method of storing coins — but the pick of this comparatively solid fabric begs the question of why the proprietor did n’t use a pot instead , Bliss said . " Perhaps they were unable to access one which was small enough , or instead perhaps they want to try and disguise the valuable contents , " he said .
The possessor of the hoard was likely a person of middling condition , rather than an elite group or somebody of interior grandness . They might have had local influence and therefore fear repercussions from the authorities change , prompting them to bury a salvage bay window following the enthronement of Edward the Confessor .
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Archaeologists expose the coin hoard while excavating a site on the Suffolk slide in eastern England , where construction for a fresh atomic power place called Sizewell C began in 2024 .
" I was shaking when I first unearth it , " Andrew Pegg , an OCA archeologist , said in the instruction . " The selective information we are get a line from it is stunning and I ’m so proud to have add to the chronicle of my own part of Suffolk . "
It ’s unclear why the proprietor never amount back for the coins , but it ’s possible that he or she croak before negociate to recover it or tell anyone about it . " They might alternatively have been prevented from recovering them due to other agency , for example if they leave or were exiled from the country and were unable to rejoin , " Bliss say .
