Braintree: Anglo-Saxon coins sell for over £300,000

A collection of 122 Anglo-Saxon coins from 1066 were sold at auction via Noonans, in Mayfair, London, on Wednesday for a staggering £325,560.

Prior to the auction it was expected that the pennies would sell for a figure up to £180,000, however, they sold for £145,560 higher.

The proceeds from the auction are expected to go to the two metal detectorists that discovered the artefacts and the landowners.

Following the sale, Nigel Mills, artefact and coin expert at Noonans, said: “Wow, this has exceeded all our expectations.

History - Two of the coins which were sold at the auction (Image: Noonans/PA)

“The atmosphere in the packed saleroom was euphoric with bidders, in person and online, wanting to purchase just one example from this important collection.”

The auction business’s coin specialist Bradley Hopper has speculated on how the hoard of coins may have been left by its original owner.

He said “While the deposition of the Braintree hoard might not relate directly to the events of 1066, the fact that it was never recovered surely did.

“Twelve shillings was a considerable sum of money.

“Its retrieval must have been prevented by some great personal misfortune; we cannot say with any certainty whether or not the Braintree hoard’s owner died fighting at Hastings, but it is a tantalising possibility.”

This follows on from when the metal detectorists discovered 144 of the Anglo-Saxon coins between 2019 to 2020, with 16 of them being purchased by Colchester Museum and Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

The coins bought by the museums included two 11th century Byzantine coins.

Prior to the incredible discovery, the two metal detectorists who have been working together for 20-years, had only found copper coins and crotal bells on the field near Braintree.

In February 2019, the duo unearthed a unrecognisable silver penny covered by a depth of four inches of dirt.

Rare - An example of the coins that were discovered (Image: SWNS)

Half a dozen more turned up in a 30-metre radius and that evening they realised they were rare pennies of Harold II, famously killed at the Battle of Hastings.

70 more were discovered a few days later and in 2020 another 70 were found.

During the auction, a single coin from the collection, a rare Hastings mint was sold for £24,000, four time its pre-sale estimate of £5,000 to £6,000.

The landowners attended the auction and said: “We are delighted with the results which is a life-changing amount of money for the finders.”