Britain’s largest hoard of forged coins found by novice detectorist
The Daily Telegraph reports that the largest ever hoard of forged coins has been unearthed by detectorist, John McGimpsey.
John only started detecting at the start of the first lockdown. He found the 332 fake coins in a field in Leek, Staffordshire.
John said: “I picked up a signal between two trees and dug down 10 inches. I had pretty much given up when I spotted a small disc-shaped object at the bottom of the hole. I flicked it with my finger, only to discover it was attached to ten other similar sized discs – they were all coins. The coins just kept on coming and some were even still wrapped in paper.”
It is believed that they were buried by a known forger, George Fearns who lived in a house 200 yards from the find site. Fearns had been caught passing forged notes in 1801 and was hanged later that year in Stafford Gaol.
The strange thing about the coins is that one side depicted the bust of William III and the other George II and dated 1746.
The find was reported to the FLO and it is being considered for Treasure.