A man stumbled upon a Viking penny worth £15,000 in “the find of a lifetime” as he searched for treasures in a parsnip field.
Richard Scothern found the coin – 1,100 years old – as he scanned the field on Boxing Day last year...
PENNY FOR YOUR THOR Viking coin worth £15,000 more than 1,000 years old discovered in “find of a lifetime”
The keen metal detectorist found the coin which dates back to the reign of a Viking king on Boxing Day
By Ellie Cambridge
4th March 2017
The Sun
A MAN stumbled upon a Viking penny worth £15,000 in “the find of a lifetime” as he searched for treasures in a parsnip field.
Richard Scothern found the coin – 1,100 years old – as he scanned the field on Boxing Day last year.
The coin found in the parsnip field – which could be worth £15,000 at auction
Participants dressed as Vikings pose by a long boat in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31
The 45-year-old welder, who has been a metal dectectorist for 19 years, was stunned to learn the coin dated back to the reign of Viking king of Northumbria and Dublin Sihtric Cáech.
Despite being buried below the ground for over a millennium, the penny is in fine condition.
It is set to go on auction in London on March 15, with coin specialists Dix Noonan Webb predicting a sale of between £10,000 and £15,000.
The money will be split between its finder and the owner of the field, near Newark, Notts.
Mr Scothern, of Nottingham, said: “It’s the best thing I have ever found.
“I can’t believe it survived the farm machinery. That coin has used up its nine lives.
“I must have walked over the coin so many times on previous visits. My detector gave a signal that was as clean as a whistle and the coin was only a couple of inches below the surface.
“It was incredible when the coin came out.
“I immediately knew it was a Viking coin because I had seen reproductions of them in the Jorvik Museum in York and I knew that it was a nice coin. But I didn’t know about its rarity.”
Lyle Hair, the Quizer Jarl, leads the Jarl Squad dressed in Viking suits on a parade through the street in Lerwick on the Shetland Isles during the Up Helly Aa Viking festival in January
The coin was minted, probably in Lincoln, Lincs., during the reign of Sihtric Cáech, King of the Fair Foreigners and the Dark Foreigners, who sat on the throne of Northumbria for six years from 921-927 and the throne of Dublin from 917-920.
He first ruled in Dublin, then moved to Northumbria, where he is believed to have conquered parts of Mercia – now the East Midlands.
Will Bennett, a spokesman for Dix Noonan Webb, said: “This penny is excessively rare and, despite having spent more than 1,000 years in the soil, is in extremely fine condition.
“In addition to being an extraordinary survivor, it is also the coin of a conqueror – Sihtric would have wanted his own coins minted to reinforce his authority.”
This week, treasure hunters found the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery ever discovered in Britain.
Last year a treasure hunter unearthed a medieval ring in the heart of Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest which could be worth up to £70,000.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3012097/viking-coin-15000-discovered/
Richard Scothern found the coin – 1,100 years old – as he scanned the field on Boxing Day last year...
PENNY FOR YOUR THOR Viking coin worth £15,000 more than 1,000 years old discovered in “find of a lifetime”
The keen metal detectorist found the coin which dates back to the reign of a Viking king on Boxing Day
By Ellie Cambridge
4th March 2017
The Sun
A MAN stumbled upon a Viking penny worth £15,000 in “the find of a lifetime” as he searched for treasures in a parsnip field.
Richard Scothern found the coin – 1,100 years old – as he scanned the field on Boxing Day last year.
The coin found in the parsnip field – which could be worth £15,000 at auction
Participants dressed as Vikings pose by a long boat in the annual Up Helly Aa festival in Lerwick, Shetland Islands, on January 31
The 45-year-old welder, who has been a metal dectectorist for 19 years, was stunned to learn the coin dated back to the reign of Viking king of Northumbria and Dublin Sihtric Cáech.
Despite being buried below the ground for over a millennium, the penny is in fine condition.
It is set to go on auction in London on March 15, with coin specialists Dix Noonan Webb predicting a sale of between £10,000 and £15,000.
The money will be split between its finder and the owner of the field, near Newark, Notts.
Mr Scothern, of Nottingham, said: “It’s the best thing I have ever found.
“I can’t believe it survived the farm machinery. That coin has used up its nine lives.
“I must have walked over the coin so many times on previous visits. My detector gave a signal that was as clean as a whistle and the coin was only a couple of inches below the surface.
“It was incredible when the coin came out.
“I immediately knew it was a Viking coin because I had seen reproductions of them in the Jorvik Museum in York and I knew that it was a nice coin. But I didn’t know about its rarity.”
Lyle Hair, the Quizer Jarl, leads the Jarl Squad dressed in Viking suits on a parade through the street in Lerwick on the Shetland Isles during the Up Helly Aa Viking festival in January
The coin was minted, probably in Lincoln, Lincs., during the reign of Sihtric Cáech, King of the Fair Foreigners and the Dark Foreigners, who sat on the throne of Northumbria for six years from 921-927 and the throne of Dublin from 917-920.
He first ruled in Dublin, then moved to Northumbria, where he is believed to have conquered parts of Mercia – now the East Midlands.
Will Bennett, a spokesman for Dix Noonan Webb, said: “This penny is excessively rare and, despite having spent more than 1,000 years in the soil, is in extremely fine condition.
“In addition to being an extraordinary survivor, it is also the coin of a conqueror – Sihtric would have wanted his own coins minted to reinforce his authority.”
This week, treasure hunters found the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery ever discovered in Britain.
Last year a treasure hunter unearthed a medieval ring in the heart of Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest which could be worth up to £70,000.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3012097/viking-coin-15000-discovered/
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