LONDON, ENGLAND—The British Museum has unveiled a hoard of coins found by a metal detectorist who alerted an officer from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and assisted with the archaeological excavation. The hoard contains 186 coins, seven pieces of Viking jewelry, and 15 ingots. Some of the coins depict figures thought to represent King Alfred the Great of Wessex, who ruled from A.D. 871 to 899, and King Ceolwulf II of Mercia, who ruled from 874 to 879. Ceolwulf II has been largely forgotten by history, but the coins suggest that the two kings shared a powerful alliance as equals. “Here is a more complex political picture in the 870s which was deliberately misrepresented in the 890s after Alfred has taken over the whole of Ceolwulf’s kingdom,” Gareth Williams, curator of Early Medieval coinage at the British Museum, told The Telegraph. The coins were produced in both kings’ names, and in a number of different mints. “It sheds new light on a very poorly understood period in English history,” Williams said. To read about an early Anglo-Saxon discovery, go to "The Kings of Kent."
