The Staffordshire Gold and Silver Hoard

Recently, the discovery of a major Anglo-Saxon hoard in a yet undisclosed location in Staffordshire, UK has been sending electric waves of enthusiasm across the archaeological community in the country. Experts date the hoard to be around 700 AD, and they are confident that the 1500 or so items will shed important information about this period in time, when Germanic tribes started to advance into English territory.

On July 5, 2009, an unemployed man by the name of Terry Herbert was testing his luck with a metal detector on his friend's farm, located somewhere in western Staffordshire. Aged 55, Herbert was probably just trying to find something, or anything. After 5 days working the land on his own, he discovered one of the most important treasures in UK history. When interviewed about his tremendous find, Herbert sheepishly said, "I was going to bed and in my sleep I was seeing gold items." Truly, he saw lots of them, almost 5 kg worth, plus silver items, estimated to be 1.3 kg. Now, the hoard is transferred to the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery where it is being catalogued and examined.

Touted as the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard to be ever discovered, understandably, most of the early attention is lavished on the gold objects. If you go to the official Staffordshire Hoard website, you will not even find a single picture of any silver item while there are over 500 pictures of these gold items. Why? Still, there are many great gold items, including magnificent sword hilt fittings, helmets, a folded cross, and a curious gold strip with the Latin words meaning "Rise up, o Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face."

So far, it has been highly intriguing. Will a silver buyer be interested? Sure. If you want to sell silver, get thee thy instant cash for silver today!