Metal detectorists found guilty of conspiracy to sell ancient coins after sting operation in Durham hotel
The pair were on trial at Durham Crown Court this week
Two men, one from County Durham, have been found guilty of trying to sell valuable ancient coins, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, after a trial at Durham Crown Court.
The metal detectorists, 46 year old Craig Best from Bishop Auckland, and Roger Pilling, 75 - from Lancashire, were accused of hatching an illegal plot to sell Anglo-Saxon coins, dating back to the 9th Century.
The pair were convicted of conspiring to sell criminal property worth £766,000, namely ninth century coins believed to have been buried by a Viking and which have never been declared as Treasure, and have not been handed to the Crown.
Following a trial at Durham Crown Court, the defendants were also convicted of separate charges of possessing the criminal property, which was thought to be part of a larger, undeclared find known as the Herefordshire Hoard.
Best, of South View, Bishop Auckland, was arrested with three coins at a Durham hotel in May 2019 in a police sting operation.
Best thought he was meeting a metals expert, employed by a broker working for a wealthy US-based buyer, but was in fact speaking to an undercover detective.
Pilling, who owned an engineering business, was arrested at his home in Loveclough, Lancashire, and a further 41 coins were seized.
These 44 coins originated from the Herefordshire Hoard, discovered in 2015, worth millions of pounds, and which was also not declared.
Four people have already been convicted for their roles in concealing that find.
The undercover police operation was set up after Best tried to sell coins to a real American collector, who then contacted UK-based experts about the apparent availability of extremely rare and valuable examples, and the authorities were alerted.
It was believed the coins were made between 874 CE and 879 CE and were buried by a Viking during this particularly violent period of English history.
They included two extremely rare examples of two-headed coins, showing Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf, a figure who was discredited by Saxon writers
as a Viking puppet ruler.
Following the conviction, Durham Constabulary's Detective Superintendent Lee Gosling, said: "This is an extremely unusual case, as it is not very often we get the chance to shape British history.
"It is astonishing that the history books need re-writing because of this find.
"These coins come from a hoard of an immense historical significance relating to the Vikings and we are delighted that they are now with the British Museum.
"This has been a lengthy and complex investigation and I would like to thank our specialist officers and the historical experts for all their help."
Dr Gareth Williams, a coin expert from the British Museum, said: "New finds have the potential to increase our knowledge.
"The coins are very much part of our heritage.
"The theft of finds like this are not just a theft from the landowner, who have rights, it is a theft of our heritage."
Judge James Adkin said the sentencing exercise would be "complicated" as the offence was rare and he adjourned the case until Thursday.
Remanding them in custody, he told the pair: "You have both been convicted of what I consider to be compelling evidence of serious criminality, in relation to these artefacts.
"You are both aware of what the sentence is likely to be, imprisonment for years."
The History:
The exceptionally rare Anglo-Saxon coins at the heard of the plot have transformed our understanding of English history, an expert said.
Previously the last Mercian king, Ceolwulf II who ruled in the ninth century, was dismissed as a puppet of the Vikings.
But Roman-style "two-Emperor" pennies, which Craig Best and Roger Pilling conspired to sell, depict Ceolwulf alongside King Alfred of neighbouring Wessex, who was to become known as Alfred the Great.
Experts say that means Ceolwulf must have been in an alliance with Alfred - before he was largely written out of history by Alfred's court, in a similar way to how Stalin erased Trotsky.
Ceolwulf disappeared from history in 879 CE, with no hint of what became of him, and a few years later, Alfred is recorded as ruling a large part of Ceolwulf's former kingdom, without an explanation of how he got it.
Historians now believe that the coins show that the established picture of Alfred the Great as the hero, saving England almost single-handed from the Vikings, is only part of the story.
They speculate that the truth is rather less creditable than Alfred's historians would have us believe.
Outside court, Dr Gareth Williams, curator of Early Medieval Coins and Viking Collections at the British Museum, said: "The coins in this case have already begun to transform our knowledge and understanding of the political situation of the late ninth century.
"The coins show beyond any possible doubt that there was a political and economic alliance between Alfred and Ceolwulf II.
"Together, the two kings carried out a major reform of the coinage, introducing high-quality silver coins, with the Two Emperors design symbolising this alliance, followed by a second joint coinage.
"As more coins emerge, it is clear that this monetary alliance lasted for some years, while an individual coin from the Durham hoard proves that the more symbolic Two Emperors-type was the earlier of the two."
The coins recovered in Durham were believed to have come from the Herefordshire Hoard, an undeclared find of around 300 coins in 2015 which was worth millions of pounds.
Only around a third of the Herefordshire Hoard - unearthed in Leominster - has been recovered.
Dr Williams said the pennies would not be routinely used for day-to-day purchases, and were of relatively high value when a sheep could fetch five pennies.
Timeline of the case:
- June 2015: West Mercia Police recover 29 Anglo-Saxon coins which were part of a larger hoard that had been found at a farm in Leominster, Herefordshire, as part of what they called Operation Helix.
- September 2018: Craig Best contacts a US-based professor who has a passion for ancient coins and tries to interest him in buying some of the 44 coins somehow acquired by co-conspirator Roger Pilling. These coins are believed to be from the same undeclared find in Leominster, known as the Herefordshire Hoard.
- May 2019: Undercover police carry out a sting operation and arrest Best at a Durham hotel, where he believed he was meeting a contact of a potential buyer. Pilling is arrested at his Lancashire home later.
- November 2019: George Powell, 41, and Layton Davies, 54, are found guilty of theft, conspiracy to conceal criminal property and conspiracy to convert criminal property at Worcester Crown Court after they failed to report their find and tried to sell the items. They were jailed for more than 18 years.
- August 2021: Best and Pilling are charged with conspiracy to convert criminal property.
- April 2023: The pair stand trial at Durham Crown Court, where they are found guilty of hatching an illegal plot to sell the coins abroad.