Swinhope coin find tops sale bid

David Phillips examines the Swinhope quarter stater.

A 2,000 year old gold coin unearthed by a metal detectorist at Swinhope near Binbrook attracted the attention of collectors based all over the country when it went under the hammer last week.

The Auction CentreDunlop Way

ScunthorpeDN16 3RN

United KingdomT / +44 (0)1724 334 411Thursday, April 21, 2022

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The tiny coin . . . about the size of a shirt button and weighing a mere tenth of an ounce of

precious metal . . . was a quarter ‘stater’, minted on the Continent in 125-100 BC.

Paul Cooper of Scunthorpe-based auctioneers Eddisons CJM said: “Staters were amongst the

first coins ever to be seen in this country. The British did not even mint coinage at the time. This

quarter stater was made by the Ambiani, one of the Celtic Tribes living over the Channel in Gaul.”

“It would likely end up in Lincolnshire as a result of trade.”

The coin was one of the most noteworthy items from the huge collection of one-time

Grimsby businessman Ron Fletcher who developed an interest in metal detecting after one of his

teenage sons asked for a detector for Christmas. The boy’s interest lasted for just a couple of years

but Ron carried on for most of the next half century, detecting at sites throughout Lincolnshire and

East Yorkshire.

The entire auction at the Eddisons CJM Auction Centre in Scunthorpe on Wednesday was

devoted to Mr. Fletcher’s collection.

Despite its diminutive size, the quarter stater achieved a hammer price of £310, knocked

down to the Grimsby bidder in the face of challenges from collectors in Essex, the Midlands and the

North.

Mr. Cooper added: “Other coin lots in the auction . . . many unearthed at mid-Lincolnshire

sites including Market Rasen, Binbrook and Tealby . . . covered the Roman period and then English