Rare coins bearing the initials of three of Henry VIII’s wives have been dug up. The gold pieces were discovered by a family in the New Forest area of England who found them while weeding their garden during the first lockdown.
They are part of a stash of forty coins from the 15th and 16th centuries. Other items in the hoard include money from the reign of Henry VIII’s grandfather, Edward IV.
It is very rare for queens to get a mention on coinage. The latest discovery includes separate pieces bearing the initials of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour, the first three of Henry’s six wives.
Their discovery was made public on December 9th by the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme as it announced the discoveries made by members of the public during the first lockdown in the UK which began at the end of March and which was relaxed from May. During that period, there were 6, 251 historical finds reported.
Experts believe the Tudor coins were hidden in around 1540, the year that Henry married his fourth and fifth wives, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. John Naylor from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford said it was possible they were once part of the wealth of the Church which was being stripped of its wealth by Henry during the Reformation, noting that ”some monasteries….did try to hide their wealth”. The hoard was worth £24 in 1540, which would be around £14,000 today.
The British Museum’s report noted that, in total, over 47,000 finds were registered with the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 2020.
