New Forest family finds gold coins worth £14,000 digging up weeds in their garden

MORE than 60 gold coins worth about £14,000 were found by a New Forest family as they weeded their garden during the first lockdown.

Dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, the haul included four from Henry VIII’s reign, featuring the initials of his wives Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.

Experts speculated the coins were left around 1540 and may have been stashed by a protective merchant or hidden by a monastery or church during the Dissolution.

The find was revealed by the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, although it did not disclose the location of the New Forest find.

A British Museum spokesperson said: “The total value of the coins far exceeds the average annual wage in the Tudor period, but it is not yet clear whether this was a saving hoard which was regularly deposited into or if the coins were buried all at once.”

Other recent rare finds include 50 modern South African Krugerrand 1oz solid gold coins discovered in a back garden in the Milton Keynes area.