Found in 1996 by a metal detectorist near Broughton Castle, it was buried for safekeeping in either 1642 or 1643, but the owner never returned. Back in the 1600s, before the time of high street banks, in times of turmoil it was necessary to hide your wealth. This hoard is likely to be connected to one of two events, either the Battle of Edgehill that took place nearby on Sunday 23rd October 1642, or the occasion when Queen Henrietta Maria and King Charles I spent the night at Wroxton, 2.5 miles north of Broughton, on 13th July 1643. The hoard contains three coins of Philip IV of Spain, minted in the Netherlands. As Queen Henrietta Maria was returning from the continent in 1643, with coinage, it is perhaps more likely that this hoard was connected with her stay in Wroxton.
The find was declared Treasure Trove at the coroner’s inquest at Oxford in December 1997, and then acquired by the Ashmolean Museum through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport early in 1998. At this time Banbury Museum was developing ambitious plans to open a new museum to adjoin the new Castle Quay Shopping Centre, that began to open in phases from 2000. Banbury Museum secured a loan of the coins from the Ashmolean, and they were included in the new Banbury Museum that opened in September 2002.
In 2009, the Ashmolean Museum recalled the coins for display in the new galleries that opened following their major renovation. Fifteen years later they have returned to Banbury on loan, displayed once again only a few miles from where they were hidden almost 400 years earlier.
You can see this remarkable discovery in the Banbury Gallery.
Images © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
