High Weald horde of Roman coins.

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Went to a talk by a Roman coin expert at the Roman centre near Chichester last night. Absolutely fascinating, the hoard itself was in a strengthened glass case with CCTV like it was the crown jewels, we got told all about the history of it, the emperors on the coins the meaning of the figures on the obverse (that's the back of the coin don't you know?) then we got to handle 12 of the coins wearing white gloves and looking knowingly at them with large magnifying glasses nodding sagely. The coins are about 1700 years old and some are in almost mint condition they think that due to rampant inflation in the empire someone stashed his loot (roughly three times a legionnaires yearly wage) in a jar hoping the price of silver would recover, he never came back and the rest is history. Some of the metal came from the mines around here as well, the coins started off at 80%silver and the rest copper and from ad 210 to ad 260 were debased to about 20% silver.
Only went to this as I was offered the chance out of the blue, didn't expect much but was blown away. Last night was a one off but I believe they are going to keep the horde on display because if it goes back to Brighton it will be stored in a vault again and it seems like no one wants that to happen. If you are in the area go and see it.

An Uncle of mine found a lot of coins and other things using a metal detector over a period of 30 odd years. The most valuable thing was a Bronze age axe head found near the Thames at Eton. It was said at the time to be the best ever found and he was asked if he would donate it to the British Museum. He didn't.