Find Spot record MDO44293 - Iron Age coin hoard found on Minchington Down, Sixpenny Handley or Farnham

A hoard of 27 Durotrigian uninscribed silver staters was found around 1838 by men digging near some round barrows on Minchington Down. The location was said to be 400 yards north of a 'British village' adjoining the road from Tollard Royal to Minchington, but the precise location of this find is not known. The coins were donated to the British Museum. They were reportedly discovered lying together in the ground with the blade of an iron sword; this may have been a currency bar.

A hoard of Iron Age silver coins of a type frequently found in Dorset was discovered circa 1838 by men digging near some barrows on Minchington Down (ST 9516). In Hutchins it is not made clear whether the find came from Minchington Down or Gussage Down (ST 9913), but as it was made 400 yards north of a 'British Village' adjoining the road from Tollard Royal to Minchington, probably the Iron Age/Romano-British settlement (ST 91 NE26), it seems certain that the provenance was Minchington Down. The coins, which were donated to the British Museum, were not contained in a vessel, but lay together in the ground, and with them was 'the blade of an iron sword'. <1>

Hoard of twenty-seven Durotrigian uninscribed silver staters, Mack 317, found at Farnham in 1838. <2>

<1> Shipp, W (ed), 1868, The History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset. 3rd edition. Volume 3, 547 (Monograph). SWX3207.

<2> Frere, S S (ed), 1960, Problems of the Iron Age in Southern Britain, 240 (Monograph). SWX2601.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 209790 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Sep 7 2022 11:03AM