The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

Fourteenth-century treasure
from Chesterton Lane Corner, Cambridge
1.
1. Part of the hoard before
conservation. Photograph from
the Cambridge Archaeological
Unit.
2. Edward III (1327–77)
gold noble, c. 1355
One of the latest coins in
the hoard, and a magnificent
example of the gold coinage
introduced by Edward III
in 1344.
CM.923-2002
In October 2000 a hoard of gold and
silver coins was discovered by Richard
Mortimer and Roderick Regan of the
Cambridge Archaeological Unit, during
excavations at the corner of Chesterton
Lane and Bridge Street, Cambridge. The
coins had been hidden under the floor of
a medieval building, in a wooden box.
The silver coins comprise 1,805 pennies
or sterlings of England, Ireland, Scotland
and Continental mints, probably amassed
in 1351. The gold coins, which are seven
nobles and two half-nobles of Edward III
(1327–77), were placed on top of the
silver coins in about 1355, and the box
was buried for safe keeping. The owner of
the hoard was probably a wealthy citizen
of Cambridge, as the total face value of
the coins (£10 3s. 9d.) was a substantial
sum in the fourteenth century.
In October 2002 the Fitzwilliam
Museum was granted ownership of the
2.
hoard, after the excavators, Magdalene
College (the former owners of the site
of the excavation), Cambridge City
Council and Cambridgeshire County
Council had all waived their claims to a
reward. The hoard has been conserved at
the British Museum, and it can now
remain permanently in the city where it
was found, as a tangible reminder of
Cambridge's medieval history. Detailed
study of the hoard is providing important
information about the state of the English
currency in the years immediately after the
Black Death, and an insight into the very
diverse origins of the coinage available to
an inhabitant of Cambridge at this time.
Coins from the hoard are displayed in the
new Rothschild Gallery, with many other
items from the Fitzwilliam's internationally
renowned collection of medieval coinage.
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Major Acquisitions