Viking treasure worth £750.000

[Kraut]

Father and son uncover a Viking treasure trove worth over £750,000

JOE SINCLAIR

A FATHER and son metal-detecting team has unearthed the most important Viking treasure hoard in Britain for more than 150 years.
David and Andrew Whelan discovered the treasure, which includes 617 silver coins, a gold arm-ring and a silver-gilt vessel, in January. The father and son detecting team kept the find intact and reported it to their local finds liaison officer.

The British Museum yesterday said the hoard was of global significance.
The medieval objects come from as far apart as Afghanistan and Ireland, as well as Russia and Scandinavia.
The most spectacular single object is a silver-gilt vessel, made in what is now France in the first half of the ninth century.
The coins include several new or rare types, providing valuable new information about the history of England in the early tenth century, as well as Yorkshire's wider cultural contacts in the period.
The hoard contains coins relating to Islam and to the pre-Christian religion of the Vikings, as well as to Christianity.
It was probably buried for safety by a wealthy Viking leader during the unrest that followed the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in AD927 by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan.
The find was declared treasure by a coroner yesterday. Outside court, the Whelans said the find was a "thing of dreams". David Whelan, 51, who is semi-retired and from Leeds, said the hoard was worth about £750,000 as a conservative estimate. Under the Treasure Act the find will be valued, with the finders entitled to half its worth and the landowner entitled to the other half, he said.
Mr Whelan and his son Andrew, 35, a surveyor, also from the Leeds area, had been engaged in the "nice and relaxing" hobby for about three years. They would not disclose the location of the field, but said it was in the Harrogate area.
Mr Whelan snr described the moment they made the find. He said: "We were sweeping and then I got a signal. I took a couple of shovels full of soil and there was a stronger signal.
"I just kept going and going. A ball of earth rolled out of the side of the hole and I could see a coin stuck in it. We dug the hole out. We crouched down on our hands and knees."
His son added: "We were sat there shaking - it was unbelievable."
British Museum experts said the find was of great historical significance. One of the curators, Jonathan Williams, said: "The find is crucial to our understanding of how England fits together."
BIGGEST FIND FOR 167 YEARS

• The largest Viking hoard in western Europe was found at Cuerdale in Lancashire in 1840.
• The Harrogate hoard is the largest Viking one to be found - and the most important one from Britain - since then.
• All finders of gold and silver objects over 300 years old, and coins from the same finds, must report them under the Treasure Act 1996. Prehistoric base-metal assemblages found since January 2003 also qualify as Treasure.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1130322007
Last updated: 20-Jul-07 01:12 BST
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1130322007

[Patto]

A pity that it was found by metaldetector, and that there has been no excavation. But I have to admire the honesty of the british searchers, in Italy such a treasure would have disappeared in the black market immediately.

[Kraut]

A pity that it was found by metaldetector, and that there has been no excavation. But I have to admire the honesty of the british searchers, in Italy such a treasure would have disappeared in the black market immediately.

Yes that s what I was thinking too at first , but in this case I think an italian would have done same under the british law which entitles the searcher half the value of the treasure, sparing the risks and hassle by selling it in the black market.

In italy in contrast, with a metal detector I think you re not even allowed to start a research at all!
But at the end of the day the italian law is "designed" according to its society. I can imagine half of how italians would behave under british laws, they d find a way how to sell the colosseum stone by stone, bunch of idiots.