Celtic coin hoard to go on display in Lymington
It is hoped that a hoard of 269 coins Celtic coins will go on display at St Barbe Museum in Lymington some three years after they were found by three detectorists.
The find
The hoard was found by Alvin Robinson, Kit Layman and Garry Eveleigh in a field near Lymington in January 2018. The three began searching the site after seeing a 25m circle in the ground on Google Earth which they thought might be a sign of a Celtic dwelling. The find was reported to the local FLO and recorded at PAS as WILT-A9B1FB. it was excavated under controlled archaeological conditions over two days.
Hoard in their “grubby” state
The initial find of 173 staters and fractions was followed by a second group of 88 coins some 7 metres away. Processing of the soil from the first part of the dig revealed 8 more coins. In April 2018, they were taken to the Conservation laboratory of the British Museum in April 2018, for cleaning and identification.Â
One of the finders, Garry Eveleigh, a detectorist since the 1970s, said “They were pretty grubby when they came out of the ground and to see them now cleaned, and in the museum, it’s totally exhilarating,“
The hoard
The find comprises 269 Iron Age coins, a copper alloy buckle, an iron loop and a silver ingot. The bulk of the hoard consists of silver and base silver South Western staters.
St Barbe Museum, Lymington
It is hoped the hoard will go on display at St Barbe Museum, Lymington
Museum director Maria Ragan said: “It is a really, really exciting find. There are 36 coins that the British Museum does not even have in their collection. They have not been seen by historians before.That makes the collection totally unique. Historically and archaeologically, it is really important as it is starting to build on our knowledge of how people began to live in the New Forest.”