How I weeded out 670-year-old coin
A UNIVERSITY lecturer was stunned to discover a 670-year-old coin in his garden while weeding his raspberries. Dr Jamie Pringle, 46, was gardening with his two children on Saturday last week when he noticed metal in the soil. It turned out to be a silver half groat dating from the reign of Edward III. Dr Pringle, a senior geosciences lecturer at Keele University, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent, said: ‘I was turning the soil over when I suddenly saw something metal. It wasn’t very shiny but looked like a coin. I thought it might be an old 50p pence. It looked bit weird, I thought it looked quite old, then I saw the cross on it.’
He contacted his local finds officer, who confirmed it dated from 1352 or 1353.
‘I don’t know what happened or why it was there. It is quite exciting,’ Dr Pringle added. The find was recorded remotely due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Finds liaison officer Victoria Allnatt said that although Edward III groats were not particularly rare, with 873 found across England and Wales, only 20 had been found in Staffordshire from that period and none in Stoke. ‘When we plot those on a map, this example found by Jamie is the only one discovered in the city itself,’ she said.
‘The next nearest one was discovered in Barlaston and then Draycott in the Moors.’ As it was a single coin rather than a hoard, it does not qualify as treasure, meaning Dr Pringle is free to sell it if he wishes.
Current valuations of medieval coins suggest it could fetch up to £350 at auction.