THE COLKIRK HOARD OF ROMAN SILVER COINS SELLS FOR A HAMMER PRICE OF £15,285 AT NOONANS

It was in January 2020 that a metal detectorist searching a field near Fakenham in Norfolk found a silver coin. Looking closely, he recognised it as a siliqua from the late Roman period. He then spent the rest of the day searching in the vicinity and found 40 coins in total. Returning the next day another 40 were recovered. With the Covid lockdowns it took two years before the total reached 432 silver coins, with each coin plotted using a GPS unit. The first 73 were offered at Noonans Mayfair in a sale of Ancient Coins and Antiquities Today (Tuesday, December 5, 2023). They were 100% sold and fetched a hammer price of £15,285 against a pre-sale estimate of £10,000-12,500.

After the sale, Nigel Mills, Coin & Artefact Specialist at Noonans, commented: “The first part of the  hoard sold above our expectations, but when you have a secure provenance like this it really adds to the value.”

He continued: “The hoard had been spread out over a third of an acre through disturbance by ploughing and has been recorded under the treasure act and returned to the finder after being disclaimed.”

He continues: “The hoard is likely to have been deposited at the beginning of the 5th century AD with the latest coin of Honorius dating no later than 402AD. Other Roman treasure finds of gold and silver also from East Anglia such as the Hoxne and Thetford hoards reflect the wealth and importance of the area.”

The most interesting coin in this hoard was an excessively rare presentation silver Third Miliarensis issued by Theodosius in 380AD which sold to a private collector for £3,400 against an estimate of £2,000-2,600 [lot 137].  The coin has on the reverse a Phoenix standing on a globe with the legend PERPETVETAS. At this time the empire was ruled jointly by Gratian, his half-brother Valentinian II, and Theodosius so this coin together with an example of each of the other two co-emperors could have provided a donative payment of a Miliarensis celebrating a military victory. This coin is only the fifth known specimen with the other four in museums.

Elsewhere in the sale were two other notable metal detectorist finds. The Sutton Scotney Iron Age Brooch sold for a hammer price of £4,200 against an estimate of £2,000-3,000. It was sold by the finder and bought by a UK-based dealer [lot 568].

As Mr Mills explained: “This bronze horse harness brooch dated from the 1st century BC. Only two brooches for a horse harness are recorded from the UK and these are both enamelled; they are cast in two pieces, with the brooch as the upper part combined with a hinged lower part. This one had been found at Sutton Scotney in Hampshire and did well because of its exceptional quality and rarity.”

A Denarius from the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius (AD41-54), dating from AD46-7 sold for a hammer price of £2,600 against an estimate of £1,500-1,800. Found in Meppershall (Bedfordshire) in 2023, it was sold by the finder and bought by a collector [lot 261].