07 May 2018

This is called the "Toenail Hoard"

The story dates back to 2015, but I just heard about it in a podcast of No Such Thing As A Fish, and thought it worth posting.
Hundreds of 16th Century coin clippings have been discovered in a Gloucestershire field. The 500 silver clippings, dubbed the Toenail Hoard, were unearthed by Gavin Warren using a metal detector in the Forest of Dean. Shaved from the edges of coins dating back to 1560, the precious metal would have been melted down and sold... Mr Adams, from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said the hoard, currently being catalogued at the British Museum, was not only "one of the biggest" but a "fantastic bit of social history"... The earliest clippings date from the reign of Elizabeth I, so 1560s to 1570s, and the latest from 1645," he said.
This is of course why coins made of precious metal are milled on the edges. (These appear to have embossed edges, which apparently didn't deter a determined thief).

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