Largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found.

dachda · Post by **dachda** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:27 pm

"The seventh century hoard, found by 55-year-old Terry Herbert on farmland in western England two months ago, consists of about 1,500 pieces of gold and silver, some inlaid with precious stones. So fine is the craftsmanship that experts say it could have belonged to Anglo-Saxon royalty."

Apparently the guy was out on his buddy's farm with his metal detector and got quite lucky. The items will be sold to museums, I believe under English law, and it is presumed he and the farmer will split a 7 figure pay-off!

See photos of some of these awesome peices at:
http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/artefacts/
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serleran · Post by **serleran** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 3:42 pm

Yeah, read about it. Metal detectorists, indeed.
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:02 pm

That is pretty cool. Lucky them. Is that correct that under English law items like these have to be sold back to the gov't? Would be nice to keep a trinket or two.

~O
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gideon_thorne · Post by **gideon_thorne** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:35 pm

Omote wrote:
That is pretty cool. Lucky them. Is that correct that under English law items like these have to be sold back to the gov't? Would be nice to keep a trinket or two.

~O

Yes. But I expect that, if you're getting a 7 figure take out of it, you could find other trinkets to satisfy such an urge.
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AslanC · Post by **AslanC** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:48 pm

Oh I bet they pocketed one or two before showing them to the gov
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mgtremaine · Post by **mgtremaine** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:01 pm

So how many XP should the guy get for such a find? I'm sure he leveled :p

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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 6:44 pm

Are those red birds or red dragons on some of those pieces? If its red dragons it could be the guy who started the legend of King Arthur's hoard.
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cuchulainkevin · Post by **cuchulainkevin** » Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:24 pm

Pretty neat link!
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Hrolfgar · Post by **Hrolfgar** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:10 am

Nice roll on the type A treasure list for Terry.

Quote:
Oh I bet they pocketed one or two before showing them to the gov

Nah just the magic items.

Nice Link.

Sundog · Post by **Sundog** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:40 am

gideon_thorne wrote:
Yes. But I expect that, if you're getting a 7 figure take out of it, you could find other trinkets to satisfy such an urge.

It's surprising, but the current system does make for very honest finders since, after all, most metal-detectorists are just as interested in the history and meaning of what they dig up as the proessionals are. Also, notice that while they found the location of the hoard, it was the professional archaeologists who performed the dig. This usually happens in this way to preserve the context of a large find such as this; the context in which items are found is as precious as the artifacts themselves.

Back in the day, there was a far more destructive law called "Treasure Trove". It stipulated that if an object of intrinsic value was demonstrably thrown away (found in an excavated midden, for instance) then it was the proeprty of the keeper. If it had been hidden, like this hoard, then it was dclared "treaure trove" and the Crown got the lot. You got a heart handshake, a pat on the ehad and maybe a photo in the local paper for your trouble.

Naturally, this led to some people being less than honest when finding objects of obvious worth.

The new system is much farier. A third-party assays the find and makes a value judgement, which the government pays to the finder. It stops historically-important items rotting away in private collections, and makes sure that finders get their just rewards for finding the things in the first place.