Oct 06 2008
Iron Age Coin Discovered by Hobby Metal Detectorist
I tell ya, the stories just don’t stop pouring out from across the pond… Here’s yet another story about a hobby metal detectorist who found something truly spectacular.
The Grantham Journal reports that “A stunned metal detector user hunting near Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace found an ancient coin depicting a warrior leader that looked just like the “Iron Lady.”
David Baker is an amateur treasure hunter who lives near Grantham. Getting a signal in a muddy field, he “dug down with his trowel when his detector went off and got quite excited when he saw the coin.”
Baker says “I’d gone out detecting for the day to get away from all the gloomy news about the economy. I couldn’t believe it when I cleaned it up a bit and saw this image of Margaret Thatcher glaring up at me. It is so ironic that she was born close to where I found it and that is also from the Iron Age - and she was known as the Iron Lady.”
The coin Baker found is actually 2,000 years old, made of silver, and is said to be from the Trinovantian tribe that lived north of the Thames. Only 10 of these celtic coins from 40B.C. have ever been found, and according to an expert, this one is the finest ever unearthed.
There’s no denying that the tribal leader or goddess featured on the coin bears a resemblance to Margaret Thatcher. The reverse side has a celtic armed war horse, imagery also associated with Lady Thatcher during her 1980’s pomp.
