(Lincolnshire County Council)
A plowed farmer’s field in England is notable not because of crops, but because of coins.
A trove of over 1,000 coins dating to the English Civil War has been discovered in a field near the British village Ewerby, according to a report from Lincolnshire County Council. The coins are relics from a time long past, with the most recent being from 1643. While a buried pot originally held them, they were reportedly found distributed throughout the soil.
“This is a monumental find from the turbulent years of the English Civil War,” Adam Daubney, finds officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme at Lincolnshire County Council, said in a statement.
The English Civil War spanned from 1642 to 1651, with the Royalists fighting with the Parliamentarians. It concluded with a Parliamentarian victory, and the execution of King Charles I.
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“The area between Grantham and Boston was a zone of intense conflict between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists in the early years of the war, so we can think of the Ewerby hoard as being from the ‘front-line,’” Daubney said.
“The hoard tells us about the uncertainty and fear that must have been felt at the time, but quite why it was buried – and by whom – is impossible to say,” he added. “It might have been buried by someone who went off to fight and never returned.”
The value of the coins at the time was a little over £34, which was a substantial amount— more than enough for a “gentleman” of the era to subsist off for a year, according to Daubney.