The Borden Hoard and History of King Cunobelin

This story begins on the 1st of January 1873 with the chance finding of three ancient gold coins in Kent, England.

Robertson 2000, 8-9 no. 35: “Near the boundary of the parish of Borden, while digging ground for a garden, “Mr. Prentis’ men discovered three gold coins. At first two were found together, one being Roman, and bearing the profile of Claudius Caesar, the other being a British coin of Cunobelin. The second discovery brought to light only one coin; another Cunobelin, but of a type which has never before been engraved.”

There was comment at the time and since that there may be more coins associated with the above find, a statement which, in 2018 drew great interest from an avid metal detectorist who came across this information while researching sites of potential interest. They contacted the landowner who kindly gave permission for them to search their farm for the site of this tantalising earlier find.

Many hours of searching followed with interesting finds but nothing in the way of ancient gold coins. Working around arable crop meant only very limited windows for searching, something which all metal detectorists will know well.

February 2019 came, field conditions were optimal and the search was on. A single gold stater of Cunobelin was discovered in the area described; could this be a part of the lost treasure? No further coins could be located although it was noted that the soil was particularly deep on this field, perhaps the coins were out of reach of metal detectors, which rarely detect below 12 inches. On mentioning this to the landowner it was suggested that an excavator be used to remove sections of the top soil and this led to more coins being discovered. A further 41 gold staters of Cunobelin were found, bringing the Hoard total to 42 coins.

The find was reported under the Treasure Act (1996) and deposited at the British Museum for further study. After the find being declared treasure, it was disclaimed and returned to the finder as no museum wished to acquire them.

Read more about the The Borden Hoard.