The coins have a high copper content mixed with silver so much conservation work will be needed. The whole story of finding it is fascinating. There was an eye witness who saw silver coins scattered when a tree was uprooted about 30 years ago, the men have been searching ever since!
The coins are from the Coriosolitae tribe who were from the Rance area in the modern day St Malo and Dinan. The coins had an intrinsic value of their copper and silver content. However the area was under threat from the Romans and I guess they just didn't want their tribal wealth to be assimilated.
Jersey has been the place where many other buried treasures have been unearthed which makes me think that it has always been considered a good place to stash wealth, as we have a strong finance sector in this modern age.
This brings me round to watching a bit of Max Kaiser on RT this morning. Talking about the gold standard and fiat money. Also about HSBC being fined for money laundering drug money.
I just wondered ages ago when we would find out that 'real money' was in fact generated from criminal activities and filtered into the banking system by the back door. That if legitimate banking is simply a debt equasion, there realy is no value in anyones currency any longer. Perhaps the Chinese do hold more gold than anyone else, but if no-one actually wants it, or can't buy it with their own currency then the whole concept of trade ceases.
I think of Rome collapsing under the weight of it's administration, and it's need for constant expansion. Perhaps the world has got to the point where markets simply can't expand, where the consumer in the west has no more credit to fuel the black hole of corporate expansion. Other consumer markets are beginning to open up, perhaps this engineered response to wealth aquisition for the few will continue as the system is being underpinned outside of Europe.
I just can't see how making more money and putting it into the 'system' makes a difference. It deflates the value of what we have in our pocket and I guess also devalues the whole economy and what our exchange rate is. Just a way of making our goods cheaper to buy from abroad. Very simplistic of me I suppose, and I don't have any economic background to make these assumptions. I just know that any actual money we have is an illusion. It has no actual value, it's just paper and numbers on paper on a bank statement. It's all a sort of credit for goods and services that we go and redeem at some point.
Perhaps I am feeling as gloomy as the weather today. I feel off colour and sickly. I am still thinking of those poor families just beginning to come to terms with losing so many children and their teachers in Colorado. There are so many places where people are losing their lives, and millions more who are subsisting in poverty. I sit here at my laptop thinking about it, but not knowing what response to make. What I must do in the new year is make some active difference somehow.
I always feel very gloomy around Christmas, I suppose it's the winter solstace effect. I have none of the warm fluffy feelings, desire to buy presents or get cards. I know my Husband enjoys it, so I have got a couple of cards for him. No presents though, not as such - he bought a couple of jig saws to do together which is hours of togetherness.
If you celebrate the Consumer Chrismas with all it's trimmings may you enjoy it to the full, and still remember 'Christ' in your Christmas.
Blessings and Cheerfulness to all, (including me) for the Christian Celebration of the Birth of the Christ Child.