Delight after metal detector’s coins find is declared treasure

Delight after metal detector’s coins find is declared treasure

28 March 2018

A KIRCUBBIN man is celebrating after a hoard of coins he found in Cloughey were declared treasure.

Michael Gwynne, a keen metal detectorist, found three Elizabethan sixpences and a Spanish ‘4 Reales’ coin on farmland in August 2016.

Working alongside his cousin, Eric Gwynne, from Millisle, Michael found the first silver coin around 18 inches under the ground. 

Joined by a friend, Paul Reynard from England, the pair found the rest of the coins nearby on a second visit in the Slans area of Cloughey.

A treasure inquest held in Belfast on Thursday heard that the ‘4 Reales’, worth over two shillings, originated from one of Spain’s South American colonies and was minted during the early 17th century. Three of the coins are Elizabeth I sixpences issued between 1561 and 1602.

Retired Ulster Museum curator Robert Heslip said the coins could have been deliberately hidden some time in the late 17th century and dislodged due to flooding in the area. He said there was also the possibility that they had simply been lost.

Landowner Niall Watson, from Carryduff, told the court his family had been farming the area for generations.

Asked if he regularly had metal detectorists on his land, he told Coroner Suzanne Anderson: “It is the first time I have allowed it. It is the first time anybody has really approached me.”

Michael also gave evidence, and speaking afterwards he said he was delighted with the results of his metal detecting.

“I have been doing this for several years,” he said. “I love history. That is what I do it for — to hear that something has come from South America to end up in Cloughey.”

Ms Anderson ruled that the coins were treasure and “very interesting indeed”. “This is a very interesting find,” she said.

The coins will now be valued by the British Museum and offered to National Museums Northern Ireland, with the proceeds split between the landowner and the finders.

A National Museums of Northern Ireland spokeswoman said: “The area in which the coins were found has a number of contemporary monuments in the vicinity, including an unusual defended settlement known as the Whitehouse, as well as Castleboy tower house and Kirkistown Castle. 

“All three of these sites would have been occupied by comparatively wealthy and powerful landowners, either trading or controlling trade, in this part of the Ards Peninsula.

“While the coins may not have belonged to any of them, they do reflect the impact of commercial activity in the area they controlled.

“The Spanish reale in particular reflects a global trading system which eventually brought a coin minted in South America to a small field in Northern Ireland.”