TINTAGEL CASTLE

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Location

City

Tintagel (Parish)

Address

Cornwall (District)

County

Cornwall

Region

South West

Country

England, United Kingdom

Lat/Long/Alt

50.658947 / -4.760296 / 92 view

Location details

Approximate find spot (4-figure grid reference)

Find spot comment

Location displays approximate coordinates centred on four figure grid reference.

Information

14573

Permalink

https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/hoard/14573

Hoard name

TINTAGEL CASTLE

Data type

Hoard

Date of discovery (from)

1 Jan 1955

(to)

31 Dec 1955

Total number of coins

Summary

A purse hoard recorded by Penhallurick as being found during Radford's excavations in 1955 of the Great Ditch below the Lower Ward's outer bank on the mainland part of the Castle. The purse was not recognised as such until later on and is thought to have been a leather draw string purse which contained 10 coins. "Workmen found an object which they took to be the dried-up remains of some small animal “with a long thin tail” in a slab of slate about the size of a telephone directory. Because it was considered to be of no archaeological signifi cance, and possibly a fossil, it was given to James Goff who was watching proceedings and was interested in fossils for which the Delabole slate (Upper Devonian) is remarkable for some rare fi nds. Goff extracted “the crushed-looking, dried-up brown object” which was roughly pear-shaped with a ‘string’ or ‘cord’ around it. Because it was so hard, he sought advice from the local chemist who told him to mix up a solution of some sort and soak it. This he did, but forgot about it until it had turned into a slimy, smelly decomposed object in which he noticed a number of small round discs."

Details
Coins Summary
Coins
Rating
Archaeological context
Containers
Objects
References
Reports
Images
Credit

Discovery method

Controlled archaeological investigation
Closing reign (earliest)

House of Constantine (RIC VIII)
Terminal year (earliest)

337
Closing reign (latest)

House of Constantine (RIC VIII)
Terminal year (latest)

341
Opening year (earliest)

270
Opening year (latest)

275
Coin-level data

Available to enter

Fetching coin data

Numismatic rating

Good
Context rating

Poor
Findspot rating

Poor

Site class

Rural

Containers belonging to this hoard

Leather purse

An object which they took to be the dried-up remains of some small animal “with a long thin tail” in a slab of slate about the size of a telephone directory.

Permalink in other online databases

Reference

The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS)

Ref

https://finds.org.uk/database/hoards/record/id/3110

Comment

Ghey, E (2015) IARCH-8AAB98

References

Reference

Penhallurick, R.D. - 2009 - Ancient and Early Medieval coins from Cornwall and Scilly

Ref

p. 221-222 , no. 218

IARCH dataset, AHRC funded University of Leicester and British Museum project. Imported and edited by M. Spoerri (June 2019 / Nov. 2024). Updated by C. Gazdac (June 2025).

Coin Hoards
of the Roman Empire

TINTAGEL CASTLE

Data not added to the map

Containers belonging to this hoard

Leather purse

An object which they took to be the dried-up remains of some small animal “with a long thin tail” in a slab of slate about the size of a telephone directory.

Permalink in other online databases

References

Coin Hoardsof the Roman Empire

TINTAGEL CASTLE

Data not added to the map

Containers belonging to this hoard

Leather purse

An object which they took to be the dried-up remains of some small animal “with a long thin tail” in a slab of slate about the size of a telephone directory.

Permalink in other online databases

References

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Coin Hoards
of the Roman Empire