Our friends at the Yeovil Metal Detecting Club visited Market Lavington and Easterton back in the autumn of 2011 and some items were immediately given to the museum. Now, more have been sent to us and we’d like to thank both the club and also Mr Snook who gave permission for them to search his fields and to give us some of the artifacts they found.
Today we’ll look at a small silver coin. It has been put alongside a centimetre rule to give a guide to size.
Let’s turn the coin so we see it upright.
The Market Lavington found half groat is around 350 years old
The other side of this coin has indistinct markings but it is clearly a half groat (sometimes written as one word – halfgroat) and it dates from the period of the English Commonwealth – the time of Oliver Cromwell. Coins like this were first made in 1649. It is made of silver but it will have little value for there isn’t much of it. But of course, it has value to us at the museum for it indicates that people were roaming the fields on Lavington Hill 360 years ago. I expect there was a very annoyed person when he found he’d lost his coin
In cash terms a half groat was worth two old pence. But that is equivalent to more than £15 in terms of average earnings. It was a significant loss.
But thanks to the metal detectorists it has been refound and now has a home in Market Lavington Museum
