Of hidden history
road near Dover. As with the licking dog horde, the proceeds from the sale will be shared with the landowner.
Only 24 aurei from the reign of Allectus, Emperor of Britain from 203 to 296AD, are known worldwide, while the only other one known, struck from the same pair of dies, can be seen in the British Museum.
A house record for the auctioneer, it is now the most valuable Roman coin minted in Britain to have been sold at auction.
Some detectorists strike lucky more than once. In 2017, Blackpool teaching assistant Michelle Vall found a rare gold hammered half angel coin, struck during the reign of Richard III (of princes in the tower infamy). With only a handful known to exist, the coin subsequently sold at DNW for £40,800. It had been estimated at £10,000-15,000. Its 15th-century value was three shillings and four pence (less than 35p).
Dating from between July 1483 and June 1484, the coin was found within 20 miles of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, the scene of the final battle in the Wars of the Roses. The battle ended in Richard’s violent death and the establishment of the House of Tudor.
Michelle suffers from severe panic attacks and was unable to leave her house before she took up metal detecting just over two years ago. She said the hobby helps her to overcome her fears and enjoy exploring the countryside. However, calm turned to excitement on a trip to Loch Lomond in Scotland last November, when she and her husband unearthed a beautiful seal ring engraved with a family crest.
Declared as Scottish treasure by the National Museum of Scotland, who declined purchasing it owing to its late 16th or early 17th-century date,
Michelle has consigned the ring to a DNW auction in September. It is expected to fetch in the region of £10,000.
Research by DNW has shown the crest is for the Colman (or Coleman) family, which can be seen displayed prominently on the tomb of Samuel Colman (1569-1653) in the parish church of St Mary, Brent Eleigh, Suffolk.
The family has important historical connections with the “Popish Plot”, a Catholic conspiracy alleged by Titus Oates, aka “Titus the Liar” to kill Charles II.
Edward Colman (1636-1678) secretary to the wife of the future King James II, was falsely implicated in the plot by Oates and was hung, drawn and quartered for treason in 1678.
Silver that crosses a metal detectorist’s palm can also be worth a mint.
When retired policeman Tom Thomas, 62, from Reading in Berkshire dug up a coin in a field near his home nearly 30 years ago, he thought it was nothing out of the ordinary.
But when Mark Becher, a fellow detectorist saw it at a family barbecue two years ago, things started buzzing.
Mr Becher runs the Metal Detectives Group in Aylesbury, organises digs and works as a consultant for Hansons auctioneers in Derby, but he’d never seen anything like it.
He contacted Sam Moorhead at the British Museum who confirmed the coin is a 2,000-year-old Roman Carausius Denarius and believed to be the only one known.
Registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the coin features the Roman goddess Salus feeding a snake rising from an altar.
It will be offered at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on August 27 with a guide price of £10,000.