Monday 3^rd October.

· The Irish Harp Coinage of Henry VIII Coins By Chris Comber.

Monday 7^th November.

• Fakes and Forgeries – Ancient and Modern By Stephen Alexander.

Monday 5^th December.

• Winter Bourse and Member’s Evening.

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

Notices

· The Xmas dinner is booked for 18.45 on Sat 10 December 2016 at The Cunning Man.  The cost will be £25 per person, details attached. We will probably be on two tables and we have to pre-order three weeks before. Please let us know if you want to come by phone, e-mail or at the October meeting.

Address: Burghfield Rd, Burghfield Bridge, Reading RG30 3BR

Phone: 0118 959 8067

http://www.vintageinn.co.uk/thecunningmanburghfieldbridge

· Please continue thinking about Short Talks for January, and Auction lots for March!

September Meeting

The September meeting was a talk by James Mather, the metal detectorist who found the Watlington Hoard in October last year. James has been a detectorist for 25 years, one of about 25,000 in the country. A number of his finds have been recorded with the Celtic Coin Index, BNS and Portable Antiquities Scheme. Most of his finds are from the local area. James went on to say that our local area is a very good one for metal detectorists, including the Reading Parks. As James pointed out, ‘it’s a hobby’, he has computed that he has probably earned about £1 an hour during all the time he has been detecting. It costs about £500 to set up as a detectorist but the really tricky bit is to find a suitable site and get an agreement with the landowner. A 50/50 split with the landowner for any finds is normal.

Detecting starts with ‘eyes only’ finds and this can include flints, pottery, clay pipes and glass items. Flints occur from 100,000s of years ago, metal starts at the Bronze Age and continues up to the present day. More artifacts are found than coins and there’s a lot of rubbish.

James then showed us some of his finds, starting with a Celtic coin that was just lying on the surface! James uses the PAS to help identify some of his finds as well as recording them, it is free. He continued with a button, whose motto translated as ‘I live in hope’ – which is an ideal motto for metal detectorists.

Finds were presented in reverse chronological order. A 20C cap badge and silver jewellery, a very unusual dental plate in gold, probably originally from Waterloo, Cartwheel pennies, Hammered coins, right down in size to the ‘cut’ farthings, a half Noble from Edward III (the only one in 25 years), a Viking stirrup mount (Reading was occupied by the Vikings between 871 and 872) a unique denier from the 8^th C, many Roman coins and others, finishing up with a Lower Palaeolithic hand axe from approximately 470,000 years ago. James went on to outline the details of the Treasure Act - what to report and who to report it to and the punishment for non-compliance.

He next went on to talk about the Watlington Hoard itself. It was discovered in October 2015 at the end of a 5-6 hour tour of detecting, just as James was thinking of giving up for the day! The treasure was in a block and it was fortunate that it had not been destroyed by ploughing. It took five days before the archaeologists and Finds Liaison Officer were able to get to the hoard and begin an excavation, possibly the most nervous five days of James’s life! The idea of planting a combine harvester on top of the find was considered (to prevent theft) but ultimately rejected. Excavation finally started, five days later, coincidentally on James’s 60^th birthday.

James went on to describe the contents of the hoard. Vikings generally used silver rather than gold for their monetary transactions and this hoard consisted of about 186 coins from Alfred the Great, Ceolwulf II and Aethelred (Bishop), fifteen silver ingots, seven pieces of jewellery comprising three arm rings, two neck rings, one piece of silver and a very small piece of gold. The coins are the most valuable part of the hoard, in particular there are some of the very, very rare Two Emperor type. The hoard has been dated to 880, due to the presence of a non-portrait coin of Alfred. This is the most southerly Viking hoard found (one of nineteen). The presence of coins from Ceolwulf as well as Alfred is causing Historians to look again at the role of Ceolwulf in the history of Britain and it may be he is due a more starring role than he has at present. A probable reason for the hoard is that it was part of a payment to make the Vikings leave Wessex some time after their defeat at the battle of Eddington.

The coroner declared the hoard to be Treasure on 23/2/16 and a valuation is awaited. It can take eighteen months to two years to complete this. There is a temporary display at the British Museum in the Money gallery, though ultimately, the hoard may end up in the Ashmolean.

A wonderful talk from James, supported by some nice examples and copies of the newspaper/magazine reports into the find.

Subscriptions

Be reminded that subscriptions are now due. It would be most appreciated if members yet to renew their subscription would please do so at the next meeting. Please see our treasurer Peter. For anyone who does not pay their subs, the October issue of the newsletter will be the last they receive.

Future Events.

• Spink, World Banknotes, Southampton Row, Bloomsbury – 28^th to 29^th September
• St. James’s Auctions, The Millenium Hotel, London – 28^th to 29^th September
• Coinex, The Millenium Hotel, London – 30^th September to 1^st October
• Spink, World Paper Money Fair, Bloomsbury Hotel, - 30^th September to 1^st October
• Token Congress, Northampton – 7^th to 9^th October
• Midland Coin Fair - National Motorcycle museum – 9^th October
• DNW, Bolton St., London, British and World Paper Money – 10^th October

Past Events

Ten years ago in 2006, Phillip Mernick gave a talk on Early Jetons.

In 1996 Dave Mc Gurk spoke to us on “An Introduction to Chinese Coins”

In 1976 Patrick Finn spoke to us on “Irish Coins to James I”

Club Secretary.