The Charlton Marshall Hoard Appeal

Blandford Town Museum is very pleased to support the Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s appeal to acquire a significant and rare hoard of Iron Age gold coins which were found by a metal detectorist in Charlton Marshall in 2020. Dating to the 2nd century BCE, the hoard is incredibly unusual, as the coins were imported from France. They were made by a Gaulish tribe called the Baiocasses and only a very few similar finds are known from Dorset and the south coast.

“This is an important and unusual hoard of gold stater coins, and if the Museum is not able to acquire them, it is likely that the group will be broken up and sold outside of the county. This will mean that all possibility of further research on the hoard, or opportunities for them to be displayed together, will be lost” – Elizabeth Selby, Dorset Museum’s Director of Collections and Public Engagement.

Finds like this hoard tell us about how people were travelling, meeting and exchanging ideas with others on the continent in the centuries before the Roman invasion. The coins have considerable potential for future research into their origins, manufacture and use. Acquiring them will complement the existing archaeological collections at Dorset Museum which have national and international significance.

The Charlton Marshall Gaulish Staters have been valued at £15,300. The Dorset Museum’s appeal has already achieved more than half of this amount, but they need to raise about another £6,000 by mid-January 2024.

For more information about the appeal, and how you can support it, please visit Charlton Marshall Gold Stater Hoard Appeal – Dorset Museum.

More information about the hoard can be found on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.