March 29, 2012 – In the course of archaeological excavations in Bath, a town in Somerset, UK, a huge hoard of Roman coins was unearthed some time ago as was announced just recently. In the meantime this hoard has been declared treasure trove.
It seems that the coins were stored in a wooden box probably at the end of the third century as the coins are said to date from around 270 AD. Today the coins are fused into one big block of metal, hence it is still not possible to give exact information on the character and number of coins comprised. Anyway, according to experts there are more than 30,000 coins making this hoard the fifth largest ever found in Britain, the biggest ever unearthed in the UK by a professional archaeologist and not by metal detectorists and the largest ever found in a town of the UK. This is indeed very exceptional as normally coin hoards are made in the country.
This hoard has been named Beau Street Hoard after the street nearby the Roman Baths were it was found and it was sent to the British Museum where specialist are working on separating and restoring the coins. The work is expected to be concluded by 2013. What will happen with the coin hoard in future is still open.
Roman Baths spokesman Stephen Clews: “We’ve put in a request for a formal valuation and then hope to buy the coins to display them at the baths. Conservators at the British Museum are taking a whole year to do the work. There are believed to be more than 30,000 coins, making this one of the fifth largest hoards ever found in Britain and the largest from a Roman town.”
The Roman Baths is now raising £150,000 to acquire, conserve and display the hoard in Bath.
This is the website of The Roman Baths.
An up-dated wikipedia article is available here.
Various online journals have reported ultimately on this important find: