Metal detectorist lands £24,000 hoard of gold coins from English Civil War
Detectorist Steve Simmons is looking forward to a huge windfall after finding a hoard of gold coins from the English Civil War in a field in Wiltshire.
It was August 2020 when Steve was using his C-scope CS2MX metal detector on a rocky and rough field near Box in the southern county. After detecting for just two months, he had not yet found a single coin.
Then, at a depth of six inches, he uncovered two coins, putting them into his pocket as he had no idea what he had found. Looking online later, he realised he had two Charles I gold Unite coins - likely deposited during the Civil War before a battle at nearby Lansdowne Hill in July 1643.
Steve then decided to upgrade his detector and went back to the spot, and close by, he found another 12 coins buried in a stack 18 inches down.
The hoard of 14 gold coins is being sold by Noonans in a sale of Coins and Historical Medals on Tuesday 4 April - and is estimated to fetch around £24,000.
Nigel Mills, Consultant (coins and artefacts) at Noonans, commented: "We can imagine that on the 4th of July 1643 at a Royalist encampment near Box in Wiltshire, an army Officer knelt and started digging in the dirt. He took off the gold half laurel that hung around his neck and added it to the leather pouch that contained a further 13 gold coins and concealed them in the small pit. Serving under Lord Hopton he would be facing the Parliamentary forces at Lansdowne Hill the next day, a battle they would lose with heavy casualties including his own."
The coins show portraits of James I and Charles I and date from 1606, with the latest coin dating to 1641-1643.
Steve, 63, used to run a restaurant in Exeter with his wife and is hoping to put the money from the sale towards his own retirement and invest in a Manticore detector, which he hopes will yield him more discoveries!
