26.04.10

Just a quick entry to say that we said goodbye to the hoard today.

Roger Bland, Head of the Portable Antquities Scheme, and Sam Moorhead, our Roman Coins Advisor, drove down in Sam’s car to pick it up. Roger rang first thing to say that they hoped to come down straight away, leaving us feeling slightly unprepared for how quickly it was going to leave us.

Before they arrived I had the opportunity to package it in slightly smaller boxes (although it still took up a huge amount of space!) and to show some of the bags of coins to colleagues. The Museum of Somerset very much hopes to acquire the hoard in due course, but it will undoubtedly still be some time until we see it in its entirety again here, so it was good to give everyone a chance to have a quick look until it disappears again.

We helped Sam and Roger load it into the car and they headed back after a quick cup of tea, keen to get back to London before their destination, the British Museum, closed. They apparently made it in time and Sam sent me a message saying that he only realised the sheer size of what they were dealing with when he saw how low his car was sitting as it stood on the museum forecourt!

It was really sad to see it go, but the story isn’t over yet as we have yet to announce the discovery to the public. However, it has been decided that the coins will be washed by a conservator and counted before we do this, to give us more of a story to tell – who knows, it might be the biggest hoard from this country ever!!!