Henry 3 Gold Penny Found

[Steve Herschbach]

“An amateur metal detectorist who discovered what is thought to be one of England's first gold coins could soon see a payday of nearly half a million dollars. The "Henry III gold penny," which was unearthed on farmland in Devon, in the country's southwest, was minted in about 1257 and depicts the former English king sitting on an ornate throne, holding an orb and scepter. It is one of only eight such coins known to exist, many of which are in museums.”

Rest of the story here

[phrunt]

I think if I lived in the UK you'd never see me on forums, I'd be too busy wandering the fields.

I'd have one of these hats with an energy drink on one side, and a can of soup on the other so I'd be able to pull full days without stopping.

The targets they can find are incredible, and even if the chance is one in a million your dig would be something like that, that's still one in a hundred billion higher than my chances here ?

This coin will hopefully end up on display somewhere for the people to enjoy, so he gets a cash windfall and the public hopefully get the gift of being able to see this coin for eternity.

It was his first day metal detecting in years, I wonder if he'll keep at it or just kick back and enjoy his new found wealth, having a find like that would be hard to top, every other find will feel rather insignificant now ?

[Tom_in_CA]

thanx for the link Steve !

[GB_Amateur]

40 minutes ago, phrunt said:

It was his first day metal detecting in years, I wonder if he'll keep at it or just kick back and enjoy his new found wealth,...

The full article (which Steve linked) says it goes up for auction this week.  It states 'Sunday' so I assume that means 23 January.

BTW, I think that contraption shown in your post is patented so if you're going to modify it with soup and energy drink you might need to get permission. 

[PimentoUK]

The official record of the find:

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1039261

..and a 'just dug' shot, that was posted to Facebook:

[GB_Amateur]

In the database entry, the denomination is listed as 'penny'.  Is this some kind of size specification, a typo, or ??

[PimentoUK]

It's funny nomenclature, but that's what it is. It may be how they were known in Medieval times, ie. a silver penny and a gold penny ( worth 20 silver pennies ) . They did keep detailed written records back then of coin production, how many they made, how many were withdrawn, who funded the production, who was the mint manager responsible etc etc., so I'm sure there's some reference to "the stryking of ten thousand golde pennys" in some old ledger in the Royal Mint's archives.

The term 'penny' goes back a long long way, it's from the Germanic 'pfennig', from 500 AD or earlier, and we Brits adopted it along with their coins in the 600's. It's meaning was essentially 'coin' or 'money' , the concept of 'twopenny coin' or 'sixpence coin' didn't exist. Later coins, in the 800's, were cut in half or in 4 to make halfpennies and fourthings ( modern 'farthing' ), but it's rather blatant that half a coin is half a penny, no-one is going to be confused or tricked.

[Valens Legacy]

10 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'd have one of these hats with an energy drink on one side, and a can of soup on the other so I'd be able to pull full days without stopping.

You only need one more item to add to it and that would have to be a bag hung much lower so you don't have to stop for the restroom breaks.

[brys]

finding something like this in UK soil is like winning the powerball lottery the odds are not good

even when you have the ground to search its very had to make good finds

theres a smalll army of detectorists searching but most make no finds of any value

week  in week out