A trove of 2,584 silver coins from the time of the Norman Conquest has been bought in the United Kingdom for more than $5 million — making it the country's highest-value discovery ever made by treasure hunters.
The coins were purchased by the U.K.’s South West Heritage Trust, an independent organization that supports historical sites, with funding from two charities, the National Lottery and the Art Fund.
The South West Heritage Trust's curator of archaeology, Amal Khreisheh, holds one of the uncovered Norman pennies.
The coins were likely to have been buried for safekeeping, a common method in the 11th century.
That they were never dug up by their owner suggests to historians that they may have been lost or abandoned because of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest.
Persons:
Norman, Adam Staples, Lisa Grace, Staples, ”, Sam Astill, Aleks McClain, Amal Khreisheh, Rory Naismith, Naismith, William the Conquerer
Organizations:
U.K, West Heritage Trust, National Lottery, Art Fund, Museum of Somerset, British, South West Heritage Trust, South West Heritage, NBC, University of Cambridge
Locations:
United Kingdom, Chew, Bristol, England, Hastings, Normandy, France