The trouble is, with sixty mints, with several times that number of moneyers in operation 1066-1087, and a relatively small number of coins of William the Conquerer which survived later reminting, it is relatively easy in the issues of William I and his immediate successors to point to very many coins which are one-of-a-kind. As jeered the hammered Coin Collectors Yahoo forum, in this type of collecting coins of which four examples survive are considered 'relatively common'. Mr Adams, the FLO quoted in the BBC interview would, surely, have known that, overseas professional numismatist Dave Welsh perhaps not, but should have checked before shouting his mouth off parroting what some journalist scribbled.
This is a typical example of the PAS making a media mountain out of a molehill, desperately trying to keep the PAS in the news, with yet another "exciting find well worth thirteen million quid thrown at the Scheme so far".
What really would make news would be if Ms Jones from Taynton could tell us what her searches had revealed about what was happening in that field in the late eleventh century which provides the context for that coin turning up precisely where it did, and how that fitted into the cultural landscape of the region around. If a metal detectorist was able to do that in a manner that would allow the results to be documented properly, that would be newsworthy. Just another coin however is not, not really. One can get coin fatigue looking at the PAS database, too many coins, not enough proper archaeology.
Vignette: William (Phil) the Bastard looking a bit miffed that Ms Jones did not recognize him.
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