The acquisition by the British Museum last week of an exquisite Anglo-Saxon gold coin found by a metal detectorist set a new record price of £357,832 (approx $650,000) for a British coin but also left the British Museum fuming.
The Anglo-Saxon coin, comprised of more than 85% gold and weighing 4.33g, shows no signs of wear and was minted between 805-810 AD during the rule of Coenwulf who lorded over Mercia, East Anglia, and Kent. The coin’s rarity is due to its perfect quality and the fact that it is thought to be the earliest gold coin in the name of an English ruler intended as circulating currency.
The coin borrows a Roman-style portrait and inscription of the king on the obverse, but bears an intriguing inscription DE VICO LVNDONIAE (from the trading place of London) on the reverse.
The coin was found a few inches below the surface of a public footpath by a metal detecting hobbyist. The find led to the discovery of a nearby Anglo-Saxon marketplace whose location has not yet been revealed as it undergoes additional excavation.
The purchase of the coin was bittersweet for the British Museum, which had been bidding on the object when it was put up for sale at a UK auction in October 2004. The coin was estimated to bring £150,000, and the BM dropped out below £200,000, with the coin eventually selling to an American dealer for £230,000. When the dealer attempted to export the coin, the BM was granted a temporary export stay to enable it to raise enough money to buy the object by matching the “market price”. The dealer revealed that he had a client for the coin and the market price that needed to be matched was £357,000, not the £230,000.
Despite protestation, the BM paid the amount and the coin now proudly joins the museum’s impeccable holdings. While the museum has commented publicly that it believes the matching price methodology in this instance exploited a loophole in the system, it seems clear that without some way of accounting for an object’s value in the aftermarket, governmental institutions would always enjoy a significant price advantage in purchasing objects using the export stay option. For more, see the article in the UK's Daily Telegraph.
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