A collection of 35 gold stater coins, which were discovered during a metal detecting rally in Kent, England, in August 2022, along with nine fragments of a flint nodule containing the coins, sold for £128,340 ($152,250 U.S.), including the 24 percent buyer’s fee, during Noonans Mayfair Sept. 18 auction.

The collection had a pre-sale estimate of £20,000 ($23,726 U.S.).

Finding the hoard

The Lenham Stater Hoard was found on Aug. 26, 2022, at the Joan Allen Rally (a gathering of metal detectorists in the United Kingdom), using a Minelab Equinox 800 metal detector.

The finder, Tony Asquith, recalls that “on the Friday morning, the opening day of the Rally, my first find was just a short piece of string with some wire at each end; the second was a shotgun percussion cap; and the third was a bit of ‘can slaw’ [shredded bits of a can].”

He continued: “Finally, something of interest came up; an odd brown disk. As I looked at this thing I noticed down on the ground close by what looked like chocolate buttons, all laid together. This seemed very odd, so I put on my glasses and looked again. I was looking at a pile of dirty, brownish, Celtic staters. It was bloody amazing.”

The coins lay on the surface in a neat little parcel, looking to the world as if they had just been dropped onto the field.

Interspersed amongst the Celtic horses were fragments of flint and, as the finder carefully looked through the pile, a coin was found to be embedded onto the inside of a fragment of freshly broken flint nodule.

As the attending archaeologist reports, “careful searching and recovery of the rest of the fragments allowed the flint to be pieced back together and revealed the coins to have been deliberately stashed into a hollow spherical flint with a natural opening in one side.”

It’s possible to even likely that the coins in the auction sat undisturbed in their flint nodule for more than two millennia; recent agricultural activity pulled the flint sphere up to the surface, it cracked, and the contents spilled out. It is a happy coincidence that the hoard was found when it was, before it could be disturbed and dispersed by further agricultural work.

Similar hoards in the UK

In his volume Coin Hoards in Iron Age Britain, Philip de Jersey identifies 10 hoards which were contained in such flint nodules as that involved in the center of this hoard, suggesting that while unusual, it is not rare.

It is notable that of these 10 other flint nodule hoards, all but one have been acquired (at least in large part) by museums, according to the auction house. 

The exception to this rule, the Chute III Hoard, was dispersed through various different venues, while the accompanying flint nodule was acquired by Devizes Museum.

The auction firm called the auction, the chance to acquire the hoard in its entirety in a single session, “a unique opportunity for collectors to acquire items of considerable numismatic and archaeological interest.”

Asquith, who is retired and has been detecting for more than 45 years, discovered the scattered hoard at a spot that is only 35 miles from where Julius Caesar landed at Pegwell Bay in 55 B.C..

Asquith was in the saleroom for the auction, but speechless after the sale. He will share the money with the landowner but will not divulge how he will spend his half of the proceeds.

According to Nigel Mills, coins and artifacts specialist at Noonans, “The staters date to around 55BC after Julius Caesar had conquered Gaul and attempted to invade Britain.”

The coins all have a shallow domed obverse with a dished reverse that displays an abstract or devolved horse galloping to the right with a charioteer’s arm above. The coins were concealed within the flint nodule which was formed 90 to 70 million years ago. The hollow interior would originally have contained mud and the decayed remains of marine animals.

Sales results

The highest price realized in the sale for a coin was for lot 1, a Gallo-Belgic stater decorated with a head of Apollo on the obverse and a stylized horse and charioteer on the reverse.

Graded Good Very Fine by the auction house, it realized £9,300 ($11,033 U.S.), including the buyer’s fee, against a pre-sale estimate of £500 to £700 ($593 to $830 U.S.).

A second Gallo-Belgic stater with a stylized horse (lot 5), graded Good VF by the firm, realized £8,060 ($9,562 U.S.), against a pre-sale estimate of £600 to £800 ($712 to $949 U.S.).

The nodule realized £5,952 ($7,061 U.S.), including the buyer’s fee, against an estimate of £80 to £100 ($95 to $119 U.S.).

All three lots were bought by internet bidders. For full results, visit the firm’s website, www.noonans.co.uk.

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