World News for Students of English

29-10-2024 07:00

A hoard of 2,584 silver pennies from the Norman Conquest period has been sold for 4.3 million pounds (5.5 million dollars), making it the highest-value treasure ever found in the UK.

The South West Heritage Trust bought the coins from the Crown. The hoard was discovered in Somerset in 2019 by a group of metal detectorists, who will share the money with the landowner. One of the finders described it as a dream come true, comparing it to winning the lottery. The hoard includes coins from Harold II and William the Conqueror, with a much higher quantity of these coins than previously found.

The process of determining the treasure’s value took nearly six years, partly due to delays caused by the pandemic. This discovery is significant because it adds to the historical knowledge of coinage from that era. The coins will eventually return to Somerset, where the discovery took place, and the metal detectorists hope to continue searching for more treasures.

Difficult words: hoard (a large collection of something valuable), detectorist (a person who uses a metal detector to find objects underground), coinage (a set of coins).

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