Tashkent treasure donated to museum

This week the Treasure Registrars thanked the detectorist finder of this coin, Dave Haldenby, for kindly donating it to his local museum. The coin has now travelled from its mint in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Hull Museum, after being found by David in the Driffield area of East Yorkshire on 24 September 2020. It was recorded at the PAS as YORYM-AA419A as a silver cut half Samanid dirham dating to c AD 850-950.

Hack silver

The coin was bent to about 130 degrees when found and has since been substantially straightened. The PAS report says that dirhams were high quality silver and circulated widely in Viking Scandanavia. Coins roughly cut in this way are found with other misshapen coins and other silver objects and together are considered to be “hack silver”.

Treasure

Single coins are not normally considered to be Treasure. The PAS report argues that this find is no longer a coin but instead bullion and is therefore Treasure: “Although past practice in relation to cut early medieval coins has been inconsistent, it is now and going forward the recommendation of the Portable Antiquities Scheme and Treasure Secretariat that such finds constitute objects that have been removed from normal circulation and adapted for use as bullion, thus rendering them non-numismatic objects for the purpose of determining their appropriate treatment under the provisions of the Treasure Act 1996. On this basis, the current find meets the criteria to be considered Treasure“