A hoard of silver staters found in 2022 by a Dorset metal detectorist will be auctioned next week and is expected to realise tens of thousands of pounds at a London sale.
The coins were unearthed by now 90-year-old John Hinchcliffe, and are due to sell at Noonans Mayfair next Thursday, May 29.
Called the Cranborne Hoard, the find is of 67 staters made by Durotrigan people.
A 1930s aerial view of Maiden Castle, one of the strongholds of the Durotriges people.
Mr Hinchcliffe made the find after digging up a Victorian penny. Taking that discovery as a good sign, he explored further and started to find silver staters (a generic term used for standard issue coins derived from an Ancient Greek type).
With the help of fellow hobbyists and the permission of the landowner to remove a wire-wrapped fence that was confusing their machines, Mr Hinchcliffe ended up with 67 coins.
The coins are of the Cranborne Chase type, many showing heads of Apollo, and most are expected to sell for between £200 to £400 each.
The Durotriges were a British, Celtic tribe based in southern England around parts of what is now Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.
They are dated as Iron Age, a period that runs from around 1200 bc to 550 bc.
Mr Hinchcliffe started metal detecting in 2002. He told Noonans Mayfair that his first reaction on discovering the hoard was to wonder why it had been abandoned.
One of the staters, part of a hoard of 64 that may have been much larger. Image courtesy of Noonans Mayfair.
Many metal detector finds are classified as treasure, and are sold under supervision to institutions.
For example, in 2024 the enormous Chew Valley Hoard of coins from around the 1066 Battle of Hastings were bought for the nation after being valued at £4.3 million.
This find is being sold after being assessed under the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which encourages metal detectorists to report find to archaeologists for recording.
Stater is a broad term and encompasses a wide variety of coins.
Their value is very dependent on their rarity, age, condition and type.
Panticapaeum now in Crimea, where the most valuable stater of all was found. The coin type is a broad category that takes in the first Ancient Greek coins and the many issues they inspired.
The most valuable ancient coin ever sold was a stater, made of gold, and produced in Panticapaeum, a Greek settlement now in Crimea. It realised $6 million May 2023. It was considered an extremely beautiful example of its type and its discovery at a far-flung Greek colonial city made it historically important.
The Cranborne Hoard will be auctioned at Noonas Mayfair on May 29.
