LOOSE CHANGE: DECEMBER 11, 2022

Thousands of dollars worth of historical artifacts are suspected of being stolen in England, according to a report Thursday by the Daily Mail. The lost Roman era treasures were slated to be examined by the British Museum.

The trove includes 28 Roman silver coins and a silver ingot unearthed earlier this year in Rutland. The artifacts were given to the museum by the two metal detectorists who found them as required by law.

To read the complete articles, see:
Roman Treasure Stolen from British Museum After Metal Detectorists Forfeited it by Law For Safekeeping (https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/roman-treasure-stolen-from-british-museum-after-being-forfeited-by-law-for-safekeeping-1234649821/)
Thieves steal hoard of Roman treasure worth thousands from museum after metal detectorists were forced to hand it over by law 'for safekeeping' (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11516671/Thieves-steal-hoard-Roman-treasure-worth-thousands-museum.html)

 

Left: A reconstructed necklace of gold and semiprecious stones, dating to A.D. 630-670, was found at a burial site near Northampton in England.

Right: A rendering of what the necklace is believed to have looked like then. (Courtesy of Museum of London Archaeology)

A 1,300-year-old necklace beaded with gold and semiprecious stones has been discovered in an early Anglo-Saxon burial site under a construction project in central England. The location is being hailed as the most significant female burial site from the era discovered in Britain.

This find is truly a once-in-a-lifetime discovery — the sort of thing you read about in textbooks and not something you expect to see coming out of the ground in front of you, archaeologist Simon Mortimer, who worked on the excavation, said in a statement announcing the find.

The jewelry piece, dating to between 630 and 670 AD, was discovered at a gravesite near Northampton this year, and archaeologists announced the details of the find Tuesday. The necklace contains 30 trinkets, including four garnets set in gold, five glass pendants, eight Roman gold coins, and 12 beads, all set around an intricate rectangular pendant marked with a cross motif.

It wasn't just one or two items. That would have been incredible in its own, Paul Thompson, who managed the excavation, told The Washington Post. We have here the only complete example of this type of necklace excavated in modern archaeological standards. … It's an asymmetrical set-out of the gold coins, and the precious stones mounted in gold, which we haven't seen before.

Experts have hailed the find as particularly significant evidence of the role played by elite women at the time. This woman probably belonged to the first generation of English Christians in this part of England, Francis Young, a historian of religion who was not involved in the excavation, told The Post. This is people wanting to show off their newly acquired identity as Christians.

To read the complete article, see:
‘Once-in-a-lifetime' find of 1,300-year-old necklace dazzles historians (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/07/necklace-medieval-burial-harpole-treasure/)

 

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
A ‘Stunning' 1,300-Year-Old Gold Necklace Is Unearthed in England (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/world/europe/medieval-necklace-burial-harpole-treasure.html)

A Catherine the Great Seal

Approximately two hundred cameos and intaglios remain in the Hermitage, St Petersburg. The seal pictured here, on offer at Ilkley saleroom Hartleys on December 7, is one of two sold directly to Catherine. Hartleys says ‘an outside expert has suggested that this may be the original stone and the one in the Hermitage was the second to be carved'.

It is a cornelian oval seal, intaglio carved with George Stubbs' (1724-1806) famous work Horse Frightened by a Lion (1770), and is signed in the stone C. Brown F. In a gold scroll mount with plain frame, 4 x 3cm overall, it has been owned by a private family for at least four generations – but found by a valuer ‘in a biscuit tin with assorted bits and bobs, so mucky you could hardly tell what it was'.

To read the complete lot description, see:
A Catherine the Great seal found in a biscuit tin is among five lots to watch (https://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/2022/a-catherine-the-great-seal-found-in-a-biscuit-tin-is-among-five-lots-to-watch/)

To read the complete article, see:
Remembering Robert E. White (1941-2022) (https://coinsweekly.com/remembering-robert-e-white-1941-2022/)

 

A rare token for one free cigar at a long-defunct hotel in a B.C. ghost town has sold for more than $600.

The small token — marked Hotel Reco Sandon B.C. on the front and Good For One Cigar on the back — was listed on E-bay for 99 cents on Nov. 19.

Over the next five days there were 16 bids. One bidder started at $155 and ended up making a final offer of $600 before being outbid for $610 at the last minute by someone who had made no earlier bids.

Sandon is one of B.C.'s well-known ghost towns, located halfway between New Denver and Kaslo off Highway 31A in the West Kootenay.

It was built to service a short-lived but lucrative silver boom in the deep and high valley renowned for its heavy annual snowfall. The community prospered from 1890 to 1900, then died off before having another boom during the First World War.

The first hotel was registered in May 1893 and within a few years Sandon had 24 hotels, two dozen saloons, two rail lines and three breweries with around 5,000 permanent residents. There was also a curling arena, hockey rink and even a ski hill.

To read the complete article, see:
Token for one cigar from B.C. ghost town sells for $610 more than a century later (https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/sandon-rare-hotel-token-sells-for-600)

 

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has completed counterintelligence operations at premises of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in Kharkiv Oblast.

Law enforcement officers found libraries containing pro-Kremlin literature, materials praising the aggressor country, and a large amount of cash in various currencies, including Russian roubles, on the territory of the diocese.

Even Russian-issued field rations were being stored in one of the churches. A monk holding a Russian passport was also discovered there. The security forces are now investigating whether he was involved in intelligence and subversive activities for the Russian secret services.

To read the complete article, see:
Ukraines Security Service finds wads of banknotes and Russian military rations at Moscow-linked Ukrainian churches in Kharkiv Oblast (https://news.yahoo.com/security-ukraine-finds-hundreds-thousands-152531993.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web