Roman and Iron Age treasure hoard donated to Hertford Museum

A hoard of 47 silver Roman coins and British Iron Age gold coins have been donated to a museum after being declared treasure.

They were unearthed in a Hertfordshire field in 2017 by a group of metal detectorists.

The oldest of the coins dates back to 129 BC.

Mark Weaver said his group had waived the finder's reward of £2,500 to donate the hoard to Hertford Museum, where the coins will be put on display.

Mr Weaver and his friends started digging in the field with the permission of the landowner and found three coins, but had to wait until crops had been harvested before uncovering the rest of the scattered hoard, as The Times first reported.

The earliest coin in the hoard was a Republican Roman denarius issued in 129 BC and the latest was issued during the reign of the emperor Claudius in AD 50‒54.

They were sent to the British Museum and declared treasure earlier this year.

A provisional treasure valuation report stated: "This is a typical hoard deposited between the Roman invasion in AD 43 and the Boudicca uprising of AD 61."

A further report noted: "The presence of Iron Age and Roman coins together is unusual though not unprecedented for the region, and the find-spot is not far from centres of Iron Age coin production."

Mr Weaver, from Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, said: "I don't know what the finds tell us about what was going on in the field 2,000 years ago.

"We have heard theories that it may have been a Roman military site or a hoard deposited perhaps in a pot for safe-keeping or as an offering."

Many of the coins were worn and "not in great condition" so individually are not of great monetary value.

However, Mr Weaver said: "We always said if we found anything significant we would donate it to the museum."

While "the buzz of finding a single coin... never leaves you," he said, finding a hoard was "very exciting".

"We're just basically a group of guys who like to go out, get cold and dirty and generally not find anything."

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