Roman coin hunters see 1964 hoard go to auction

A man who found a Roman coin with an old school friend as they searched for artefacts in a field has recalled the "life-changing" moment, as a hoard that was uncovered nearby goes to auction.

Alan Ridgers and Victor Smith, both members of the Gravesend Historical Society, found the bronze coin of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius while "field walking" in 1963.

"That was a life-changing moment, because it prompted me to ask so many questions," Ridgers said. "Who owned it? What did they do? Which language did they speak?"

A year later, workers widening the A2 turned up a hoard of late Roman gold and silver coins, now known as the Springhead Hoard, part of which is now being sold.

Richard Taylor, honorary secretary of the society, said it was "the find of a lifetime" when a mechanical excavator broke a ceramic vessel containing the coins, thought to have been hidden around the 380s AD.

He said members had been digging at Springhead every Sunday in the 1950s, uncovering temples, shops and roads of the Roman town of Vagniacis.

The coins were found within the remains of a busy Roman roadside settlement and religious centre, he added.

"We can only speculate about why it was buried," he said.

"Was this money arriving from the Continent, or wealth on its way back there? We may never know."

Smith recalled how the society's members stepped in to recover 447 coins in total as roadworks on the A2 continued.

They searched on their knees, "working their way along individual parallel search lines, divided from each other by strings", carrying out the work as giant earth movers roared by outside the fenced-off area, he said.

In 1965, an inquest declared the hoard a treasure trove and the British Museum took 27 coins. The society bought the remaining 420.

London auctioneers Noonans said the hoard was found undamaged by agriculture and before modern farming chemicals became widespread, leaving many coins in a "remarkably fresh" condition.

The first part will be sold on Tuesday and the remaining coins will be sold next spring.

Tuesday's sale is expected to fetch up to £15,000, with proceeds supporting work on the society's archive, which includes documents, photographs, excavation records and artefacts from the time.

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