Author: BNS Blog Coordinator

A Day at the Museum – Part (ii) Moving The Shillington Hoard – Gary Oddie

This note describes a visit to Stockwood Discovery Centre (The Culture Trust, Luton Museum) by members of the Bedford Numismatic Society. The motive for the visit was to help with the safe removal of the hoard of gold aurei that had been found at Shillington, Bedfordshire, found 1998-1999, along with another hoard of denarii and a bronze mirror found nearby. It was a privilege to be asked and a pleasure to help with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at 127 gold aurei dating from  AD 14 – AD 79, one of the largest hoards of Roman gold coins found in Britain.  

The Kilkenny West, Co. Westmeath, Hoard of Coins of Eadgar – Hugh Pagan

Image: Colonel Sempronius Stretton, a painting by Thomas Barber This note has two primary purposes. The first is to draw the attention of the numismatic community to John Sheehan’s reassignment of the Eadgar hoard’s find spot from Co. Kilkenny to Co. Westmeath. The second is to provide an updated listing of the coins of Eadgar and of other tenth-century Anglo-Saxon rulers offered in the 1855 Stretton sale.

A Die Study of James I Shillings – Second Issue, mm Key – Gary Oddie and Michael Thompson

This note continues the die studies of James I shillings, working backwards through the mintmarks of the second issue. Here the mintmark Key is presented – issued between 17th May 1609 and 11th May 1610 and when £11 4s 11d of silver was in the Pyx trial.The issue is of average rarity with 56 specimens found struck from 33 obverse die and 41 reverse dies. The sample is far from ideal, especially for the reverse dies. As a general impression, some of the dies continued to be used when they were in a very corroded state.

A Day at the Museum – Part (i) The Search for the Lesser Elongated Squirrel

On 25 July 2023, the author and two members of the Bedford Numismatic Society visited Wardown House Museum and Gallery, in Luton. The “behind the scenes” visit had two main motives. Firstly, inspection and photography of the Museum’s collection of Bedfordshire tokens and also to work through the museum’s holdings of Anglo-Saxon and Norman pennies struck at the Bedford Mint.A follow-up visit to the Stockwood Discovery Centre on 15 August was arranged to view the Bedford Mint pennies, on permanent display there, and also to help the museum with the safe relocation of the Shillington hoard of 127 gold aurei found in 1998 and 1999. This will be written up in a separate Blog. Whilst on site the opportunity was taken to make an elongated penny using a machine in the visitor centre to be described here.

A Die Study of James I Shillings – Second Issue, mm Bell – Gary Oddie and Michael Thompson

This note continues the die studies of James I shillings, working backwards through the mintmarks of the second issue. Here the mintmark Bell is presented – issued between 11th May 1610 and 9th May 1611 when £9 12s 8½d of silver was in the Pyx trial.The issue is of average rarity with 54 specimens found struck from 32 obverse die and 31 reverse dies. As well as a single mm Bell over Coronet die, there are also an unusually high number of Bell over Key dies. For the obverse dies 14/32 are Bell over Key and for the reverses 5/30 are Bell over Key. Just two die sinker’s errors have been found, the first lacking a reverse mm, and the second has CONIVNIT for CONIVNXIT.

Tokens Used by Bedfordshire Market Gardeners – Gary Oddie

___________________________________________________________________________________ This note presents a brief introduction to market gardening in Bedfordshire and a series of tokens, bearing only initials, that were used as receipts or tallies for each sack or basket of produce picked. Once understood, the initials allow the identity of the farmer and his location to be identified. Two pieces of documentary evidence are also presented, from the 1940s, that confirm the use of London Market checks as pickers’ tickets in the fields of Bedfordshire.