The Braintree Hoard of Harold II (Godwinesson) and Edward The Confessor Silver Pennies - Sold

The Braintree Hoard of Harold II (Godwinesson) and Edward The Confessor Silver Pennies

Found by two detectorists in 2019/2020 on a cultivated field near Braintree, Essex.

The friends were out detecting in late September 2019 when they got a signal, digging down four inches revealed a silver penny. Half a dozen more turned up in a 30-metre radius and that evening they realised they were rare pennies of Harold II. Over the next few days around 70 more were found by slow and methodical use of the detectors. This was repeated in 2020 when the field was next available to search with another 70 coins uncovered.

The hoard

The hoard comprised 144 coins in total from the last two Anglo-Saxon kings of England – Edward the Confessor and Harold II Godwinsson. The absence of coins of William I suggest the coins were buried before 1066. It is clearly a possibility that their retrieval was prevented by the events at Hastings in that year.

An unusual feature of the hoard is that it contained two Byzantine coins.

The find was reported as treasure and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (Reference ESS-1CFF0B ).  Colchester Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge decided to buy 16 coins between them from the hoard, including the two 11th century Byzantine coins. The remainder were disclaimed and returned to the finders.
We subsequently bought a large part of the disclaimed coins, here you will see a selection of these coins.
When finds like this are made then disclaimed we at Silbury Coins are perfectly placed to assist with their dispersal, we have specialists in Anglo Saxon coinage in our office and are capable of researching and publishing the find to a level unparalleled in the marketplace. Selling finds like this through us enables finders to achieve the highest price for their find and the collector will receive a fully documented coin with much information which only increases interest and value.