A Parcel of Coins from the Durham (Neville’s Cross) Hoard, 1889

England, Edward III, Pre-Treaty period, Groats (2), series C, London, mm. cross 1, 4.35g/8h; series E, unbarred ns, 4.68g/12h (N 1147, 1163; S 1565, 1568) [2]. First about very fine, second good fine £120-150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Parcel of Coins from the Durham (Neville’s Cross) Hoard, 1889.

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Collection

The following 14 lots were sold in 2007 by an elderly gentleman who told the buyer that they belonged to his late wife’s grandfather. Family tradition stated that the coins were from a hoard found near Durham and that the finder was allowed to keep some as his reward. They seem to form a small parcel, apparently unpublished, from the Durham (Neville’s Cross) Hoard, found in the spring of 1889 by a young man named Markey while bird’s-nesting in a wood near the river Browney to the west of the city. The coins were concealed in a broken earthenware pot at the root of an old tree. The finder turned the coins over to two local antiquarians, Matthew Fowler and George Neasham. The hoard was originally published by Sir John Evans (NC 1889), while more details of the present parcel and its relationship to the hoard can be found in an article by David Symons in BNJ 2014, pp. 240-3