The contents of a major hoard are coming to auction in London on Sept. 18, offered by Noonans.

The Helmingham Hoard, found in 2019, is one of the largest hoards containing both Iron Age gold staters and Roman silver denarii found in Britain. It contained 680 gold and silver coins buried no later than  A.D. 46 or 47.

The Helmingham Hoard of British Iron Age and Roman coins is the marquee offering in the Noonans auction.

Helmingham hoard

Found by George Ridgway near Stowmarket, Suffolk, in September 2019, it has a total estimated value of £75,000 ($98,215 U.S.).

An avid treasure hunter from a tender age — having received his first metal detector at just 12 years old as a gift from his grandmother — Ridgway was drawn to Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, by its historical significance. The Hall’s residents shared his passion for the past, and he was granted private permission to detect the grounds.

At the request of the landowner, the exact find spot is not being disclosed. The location is near an old Roman road and has produced a general assemblage of Roman material.

On the day of discovery, Ridgway first found a scattering of Roman brooches, several of which date to the first century, making them roughly contemporary with the hoard found nearby. Some 30 yards down the field came the first coin: a denarius of Julius Caesar which poked its head up and was revealed.

Over the next three hours, Ridgway found 206 coins, spread across an area of approximately 1.5 meters (about 5 feet in diameter). Well aware of the significance of his find, Ridgway contacted a local archaeologist so that the find could be properly recorded and assessed for archaeological significance.

Concerned about the find site being plundered, Ridgway’s father offered to stand guard at the site, staying for two nights to protect the hoard.

Archaeological exploration

Shortly after the find, archaeologists conducted an extensive three-month-long dig, which yielded an additional 205 coins.

Controlled metal detecting of the site within a 60 yard (180 feet) radius of the initial find recovered an additional 314 coins.

Ridgway returned to the site in both 2020 and 2021, finding a further 9 and 14 coins respectively.

All together, one gold Aureus of Claudius, 724 Roman silver denarii, 19 gold staters and 4 quarter staters of Cunobelin were found, making this the largest mixed hoard of British Iron Age and Roman coins found to date in Britain.

Shattered remains of the base of a pot were also found near the corner of the field, in proximity to one of the denarii.

The Helmingham Hoard was recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the hoard passed through the treasure process. Sixty-three coins were retained by various museums, with the rest being returned to the finder and landowners in early 2024.

The hoard is now being offered for sale in the hopes that its dispersal might inspire other treasure hunters and numismatists to continue in their efforts and to enable further study into this important part of history.

When asked what he will do with the money raised from the auction after splitting it with the landowners, Ridgway said he will buy his dad a pint.

Why was the hoard buried?

The final coin in the hoard was struck in A.D. 46 to 47, providing a terminus post quem during the reign of the emperor Claudius, just a few years after the conquest of Britain.

The auction house presents some historical data, appearing in the following paragraphs, tying the hoard to other larger events in the United Kingdom.

The Claudian invasion of Britain began in A.D. 43, with the forces initially led by Aulus Plautius. By A.D. 47, Plautius had conquered and negotiated treaties with many of the southern tribes, only to be replaced in his role by Publius Ostorius Scapula.

Early in A.D. 47, Scapula introduced into law the compulsory disarmament of the British tribes, with exception granted for hunting equipment. Unsurprisingly, this was not well received by the subjugated locals; a guerrilla campaign ensued and the western tribes led by Caratacus, the son of Cunobelin, marched eastward to face the Romans.

Scapula, in response, prepared his men for battle. Today, this series of events is known as the Iceni Revolt.

Many folks, historian or not, have heard of Boudicca and the Iceni Rebellion of A.D. 60 to 61. In contrast, the Iceni Revolt of 47 remains far more obscure, both within academic circles and public consciousness; the discovery of the Helmingham Hoard offers a tangible insight into this fascinating period of Britain’s history.

Helmingham Hall lies just short of 27 miles north of Camulodunum, an important early Roman settlement. It is here that veterans of the XX Valeria Victrix retired to prior to A.D. 49.

According to Tacitus in his Annals 12.31, Publius Ostorius brought down the Iceni Revolt with “allied troops, without the strength of the legions”; it seems quite plausible that legionary veterans would be included in this number. Sixty-five miles to the north of Helmingham Hall is Stone Camp Hillfort, a site identified as the place where the Romans finally ultimately put down the Revolt.

Helmingham, then, fell right in the middle of these dramatic events. It is tempting to imagine the hoard’s original owner being an active participant in this conflict.

Explaining the hoard

The auction house speculates from the hoard’s considerable value, with its 724 denarii coins equating to just over three years’ salary for a legionary soldier, that its owner might have been a high-ranking Legionary, perhaps a Tesserarius or Option.

Noonans suggested that this would-be hoard owner from the past could have arrived in Britain in A.D. 43 with the XX Valeria Victrix, then traveled up north with Plautius’ forces, settled in Camulodunum for a short while, before heeding Publius Ostorius call to arms to put the down the Iceni Revolt, traveling north to Helmingham, where the hoard was buried by the pond, before going onwards up to Stone Camp Hillfort where he fell in battle.

“However, none of this need be true,” the auction house said.
“It was quite common for people who had access neither to banks nor vaults to conceal their wealth in the ground, even in times of peace. Whatever the case, a hoard of this size would not easily be forgotten, and its retrieval must have been prevented by some great personal misfortune. The truth is that we will never know the name or position of the Helmingham Hoard’s original; what we can say is that they were a participant in one of the most dramatic and impactful chapters in the history of this island.”

To learn more about the coins in the hoard, visit the auction house website, www.noonans.co.uk.

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