In times gone by, just like today, items are discarded because they no longer have a use to us. If we have finished with a bottle today we dispose of it in a bin, years ago they would have dug a big pit and threw all the rubbish in. In fact there are a number of people who actually follow the hobby of “bottle digging”.

This involves looking for old pits and escavating bottles, preferably not smashed, and then cleaning and displaying them. Often these items are up to 10 feet down and extreme care would need to be taken when doing this, in case the hole was to collapse on you. Also in the past, like we do today, our forefathers would try and find another use for items. In the case of precious metals this would involve melting it down and remolding into something else.

Accidental Loss

Another way items find themselves in the soil is through accidental loss. There can’t be many of us who haven’t at one time lost an item of some importance to us or maybe some coinage. In fact it is not uncommon to walk along the street and see the odd 1p coin or maybe a 10p coin. In many cases people walk past them because they have little value. These may find themselves being swept up and eventually in a land fill site maybe for one of descendants to find in the future. However if you happened to see a gold coin or bracelet in the street it is highly unlikely that we would just leave it.

It doesn’t mean they these valuable items are not lost, it just means that they are not “lost” for long. I know personally over the last few years I have found several notes with values of between £5 and £20. I may not bend down and pick up a penny but a certainly would for a note. I remember when I was young and our dog ate a five pound note – my Dad was keen to retrieve this 24 hours later. I don’t think I need to explain how!

Also in the past our toilet system was not as advanced as it is today. In the early times it would mean using a bucket. In later times it would mean using a toilet but with little drainage it was often left to workers to empty them on fields during the night. This was affectionately called “night soil”. Some lovely items are found in night soil. The main reason is that if somebody dropped something down the toilet, it was unlikely they would go to the trouble retrieving it unless it had some real value, either monetary or sentimental.

Deliberate Burial in a Grave

In the past it was not uncommon for items to be buried alongside the deceased in the belief that the spirit of these items passed into the next world too. A friend of mine came across a brooch whilst Metal Detecting alongside a skeleton of a man and a skeleton of a horse. Another excellent example of this is the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the highly elaborate burial of an Anglo Saxon King. Many other examples exist of skeletons being found with a coin in their hand. This is also great way of dating the burial.

Hoards

Another way items find themselves in the ground is buy way of deposition for safekeeping or savings. In days gone by our predecessors did not have the luxury, as we do today, of a bank to deposit their savings. They also often lived in turbulent times and would feel safer leaving their items buried. This would usually involve finding an area, out of the way, and digging a hole in which they would deposit their wealth. Often hidden in an old pot or some other kind of container.

In the vast majority of times the items were recovered but on thousands of occasions the owner would die or be killed before retrieving the same. This is why many coin hoards are found at periods of conflict such as Civil Wars etc.

I am in the middle of collating articles on many coin hoards found in the UK and if you’d like to see them please feel free to pop along to
coinhoards.co.uk.