Renovating their English countryside home, Robert and Betty Fooks unearthed a 17th-century coin hoard. Image Credit: Gemini
Imagine that you’re browsing through Zillow as you dream of the ideal “fixer-upper” with character. Then you find yourself in a historical house situated in the English countryside. You grab some axes to push down the foundation floor to give you the much-needed headspace, and click. It’s not a matter of hitting dirt; you strike the jackpot in real life.The story of Robert, as well as Betty Fooks, was not just a fantasy. When they were renovating their house located at South Poorton Farm in West Dorset, Robert’s axe hit the bowl of glazed pottery, which was dug under the flooring. It exploded into an ethereal time capsule of around 100 silver and gold coins from the beginning of the 17th century. The “Poorton Coin Hoard” was recently auctioned off for around $75,000. However, the worth lies in the gruesome background of the reason it was initially in existence.What was the reason people were investing their savings in the sandFor a better understanding of why families put their money in an empty ceramic jar and then put it on the kitchen floor, you must take a look at the chaos in the 1640s. England was breaking apart in the first English Civil War. There was a place where your neighbour could be a Royalist spy, and troops who knocked on your front door, regardless of whether they were wearing the colours of the King or the Parliament, trying to “requisition” your food, your horses and silver.Based on a thorough analysis of Coin hoards of Charles I and the Commonwealth that the time between 1642 and 1660 resulted in a staggering amount of hoards not found, exceeding any other period in British historical records (Besly, 2013). It was more than “saving for a rainy day” but a desperate effort to safeguard the assets you owned from being taken away by systemic seizures. If you’re even suspect to be on the wrong side, the authorities could “sequestrate” (fancy 17th-century talk in the 17th century for “legally steal”) everything that you had.The Fooks’s discovery of gold coins dating back to James I and Charles I. It was most likely hidden between 1642 and 1644. The time was when Dorset was a highly competitive military corridor. Rural families in Poorton resided in a perpetual condition that was “fight or flight,” and with no airspace and no place to go, they chose to stay in their homes.
Buried during the English Civil War’s chaos, this “Poorton Coin Hoard” of gold and silver coins was a desperate act to safeguard wealth from “sequestration.” Image Credit: Gemini
The psychological basis of “secret stash”For the millennial generation and Gen Z, the thought of hiding cash could appear like something straight from a heist film. Today, we have electronic banking as well as crypto and insurance. However, in the seventeenth century, your money was as secure as the pit you dug to get it.Studies suggest that in times of social and political devastation, the manner in which individuals interact with money shifts completely. Based on a study conducted by Monetary Plurality in Local, Regional and Global Economies, these coins shaped human interaction in turbulentwhenes that the world seemed unorganised. A hoard’s burial was a method to “rebuild the world,” an act of trust that there was some day when the fight ended, and that you would be able to take your life back to the ground.The tragic part of the Hoard of Poorton is that it was buried by the one who put it in the hoard, and never returned. Perhaps they were killed in battle, or maybe they were one of the countless “displaced persons” of the time who could not find their way back.An exciting treasure hunt for the modern age, right in your backyardThe Fooks tale is an example of how history doesn’t have to be in books; it’s actually underneath our feet. Betty Fooks noted that if they had not decided to raise the flooring in order to make the space easier to live in, those gold coins might still be in the same spot, almost 400 years later.Presently, the “Poorton Coin Hoard” has been cleaned by the British Museum and sold to new buyers; the legacy of it is a harrowing view of the way humans act with their lives when they are in danger. The first “home security system” was simply a pot with a solid base with a secret location underneath the flooring.
