Very rare Edward III "Leopard" gold coin found by detectorist

[Booky586]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-57520248

This article has just appeared on the BBC and makes an interesting read. Two gold coins are found together and the description under the photo reads "the coins show little sign of wear and tear". I'm puzzled because they both look very bent and twisted though.

[SilverJacks]

Wow! Can you imagine the buzz and excitement of finding those! And then the creepy realisation that someone may have taken them to the grave...

I'm guessing their condition is relative to the others in existence, which may have less detail and more abrasions?..

 

[SilverJacks]

Plus them being bent could be considered a sign of authenticity. Can you imagine you're going to collect them for evaluation and the finder says " Here you go, I've flattened them out and give them a good scrub for you"

[dicker]

Bent but the detail is pretty good.  Glad the detectorist wasn’t tempted to flatten them out

[Scaffstacker]

Gets the imagination going seeing coins/articles like this.

[dicker]

I have said here before, there is still a vast amount of treasure to be discovered around the world.
 

Shipwrecks offering probably the biggest single sources of treasure e.g The Merchant Royal which has yet to be located, but also hoards in the US and Australia on land.

However much is simply waiting to be found, buried by long dead rulers, thieves and just the plain wealthy.

Many excellent books available on treasure hunting and treasure found!

Best

Dicker

 

[dicker]

Here are a couple of treasure wreck coins from the Dicker collection. 

Relatively inexpensive to buy but with a wealth of history.  
 

These are old pics and these are in the bank vault so sorry I don’t have better pics.  
 

Best

Dicker

[Booky586]

2 hours ago, dicker said:

Here are a couple of treasure wreck coins from the Dicker collection. 

Relatively inexpensive to buy but with a wealth of history.  
 

These are old pics and these are in the bank vault so sorry I don’t have better pics.  
 

Best

Dicker

It's a strange coincidence that an Isles of Scilly shipwreck should show up in this thread as I've just returned from holiday there!

The Association holds lots of great stories, as well as it's admiral, Sir Cloudisley Shovell. One of the treasures linked to it always makes me smile, here it is from memory:

The sinking of the Association and it's fleet cost the admiralty deeply, so much so that they offered a prize of £10,000 to anyone who could solve the navigational problem of longitude, the cause of the disaster. A clock maker, John Harrison, solved the problem and received the prize money by creating the chronometer, but only after several failed attempts with other clocks.

Roll on 200 years and one of John Harrison's early clocks, a long lost treasure, turned up in a lockup in Clapham, London, and later sold for Millions.

As you probably know, the finders of the treasure were Delboy and Rodney! 😃

Seriously though, the full story of the admiralty prize, longitude, and John Harrison is one of my favourite reads: Longitude, Dava Sobel: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)

[Foster88]

7 hours ago, dicker said:

I have said here before, there is still a vast amount of treasure to be discovered around the world.
 

Shipwrecks offering probably the biggest single sources of treasure e.g The Merchant Royal which has yet to be located, but also hoards in the US and Australia on land.

However much is simply waiting to be found, buried by long dead rulers, thieves and just the plain wealthy.

Many excellent books available on treasure hunting and treasure found!

Best

Dicker

 

I always been fascinated with shipwrecks since I can remember.

I have a modest collection of ceramics from a few Chinese and Vietnamese shipwrecks.

The most are from Tek Sing, achinese trading ship sailing to Europe which sunk in 1822, Hoi An which sunk in late 15th century and Ca Mau which sunk circa 1725.

All very fascinating pieces an some complete with coral still attached.

There’s one shipwreck that fascinates me the most, I’ll give you a clue, it sunk in 1912.

[SidS]

9 hours ago, Foster88 said:

There’s one shipwreck that fascinates me the most, I’ll give you a clue, it sunk in 1912.

I own a small piece of coal recovered from that particular wreck, issued by the company that owns the salvage rights.

I also went to the exhibition they had at the O2 arena back in 2011. It blew my mind that day I can tell you. Long been fascinated by the Olympic Class ships.

[SidS]

19 hours ago, dicker said:

Bent but the detail is pretty good.  Glad the detectorist wasn’t tempted to flatten them out

Someone will though.

I once happened upon a website where they recorded all the archaeological finds in that area (it might have been Warwickshire or Dorset or somewhere), I can't remember for the life of me.

But their societies' finds department had connections to a restorer who illustrated in detail how he took coins like this and straightened them out without damaging them. It was very skilled and very fascinating.

Whenever you see a coin that says 'creased' it most likely has been a coin that was folded in half at one time or other and has been straightened. So common with Medieval through to late 1700s stuff.

I've had a few half guineas and even the odd quarter noble in the past that probably started out like the coins above. Not to mention sixpences and shillings of William III and Anne vintages.

Gold leopards are a sight to behold I bet, never see one in the flesh though.

Love nobles, I might have to buy another one some day, it's been many, many years since I had one. They ooze history and scream treasure at you, beautiful coins.

Edited June 21, 2021 by SidS
Spellings

[SidS]

Found it... It was Colchester - I couldn't have been more at the wrong side of the country!

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/C/coinstraightening.htm

Some pictures of coins before and after, I'm sure there was a description somewhere too.

[Smiler999]

Maybe a silly question, but any idea how the coins came to be bent over in two?

[dicker]

Its a good question, and no!

If anyone knows I would be very interested to hear.

[SilverJacks]

Farming equipment?

[SidS]

Generally with low denominations like shillings and sixpences in the 17th/18th centuries it was fashionable to bend them in half and give them as love tokens to a potential spouse. However, much more doubtful with the leopards as the value of them far exceeded what the majority of the population could earn/afford and its many centuries before the 17th/18th, so not sure whether bending coins in half as tokens was even a thing then. I suspect not, but willing to be corrected by anyone who knows better.