An important hoard of Tudor coins - some of which shine light on the marriage history of Henry VIII - has been found by a somewhat startled family weeding their garden.

The British Museum revealed details on Wednesday of discoveries registered to its Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), the majority of which are made by the nation's army of metal-detecting enthusiasts.

More than 47,000 finds have been recorded with the scheme in 2020, with 6,251 reported during the full lockdown from March to May, when metal detecting was prohibited.

Ian Richardson, the treasure registrar at the museum, said people had obviously been spending more time in their garden, "resulting in completely unexpected archaeological discoveries".

That was certainly the case for the unnamed New Forest family who dug up 63 gold coins and one silver coin dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. "They were out turning up the soil and all of a sudden these coins popped out of the ground ... miraculously," said Richardson. "It is quite a shocking find for them and very interesting for us."

Probably hidden in about 1540, they include coins from Henry VIII's reign, which are unusual in that they also, separately, feature the initials of three of his wives - Catherine of Aragon (K), Anne Boleyn (A) and Jane Seymour (I).

Barrie Cook, a curator of medieval and early modern coins at the museum, said putting his wives' initials on gold crowns was "a very strange decision" and, numismatically, very interesting.

The Tudor hoard contains coins from the time of Edward IV through to his grandson Henry VIII, with the bulk being "angels", gold coins that have on their back an image of the archangel Michael killing a dragon as described in the book of Revelation. "That's the workaday gold coin of the late medieval and early modern period," said Cook.

John Naylor, a coin expert from the Ashmolean museum, said the hoard was probably buried by a wealthy merchant or a member of the clergy. "You have this period in the late 1530s and 1540s where you have the Dissolution of the Monasteries and we do know that some churches did try to hide their wealth, hoping they would be able to keep it in the long term. It is an important hoard ... You don't get these big gold hoards very often from this period."

To read the complete articles, see:
Tudor coins dedicated to three of Henry VIII's wives found in family garden(https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/09/tudor-coins-dedicated-to-three-of-henry-viiis-wives-found-in-family-garden)
Family find ancient gold hoard while gardening(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-forest-garden-coin-discovery-is-latest-in-a-string-of-lockdown-finds-wh0wrg5kw)
Lockdown Gardening in Britain Leads to Archaeological Discoveries(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/world/europe/uk-treasure-lockdown-gardening.html)
Gold coins, medieval treasures discovered in British backyards during lockdown(https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/gold-coins-medieval-treasures-discovered-in-british-backyards-during-lockdown/ar-BB1bRkE5?li=BBnbklE)
Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden(https://www.livescience.com/gold-coin-hoard-english-monarchs.html)