A hammered silver halfpenny coin, minted by Edward I after he came to power in 1272, has been discovered by a pair of nine-year-olds trowelling mud near the ruins of one of the most strategically important castles which chaged hands around the time the Anglo-Scottish Battle of Flodden two and a half centuries later.

Working in cold, wet morning conditions, two boys from the Scottish Borders found the coin under the guidance of organisers behind a £1.3 million project which will create an ecomuseum near the medieval Wark Castle in Northumberland.

"We found lots of medieval pottery, animal bones and, at the very end of the morning, the coin," says Jane Miller, an Education Officer for the Flodden 1513 museum, whose experts have helped eager children and volunteers investigate an area briefly captured by James IV's Scottish army in 1513.

"This exciting find was the icing on the cake."

The first king to mint halfpennies, Edward I was born in 1239 and became known as Longshanks because of his height. He was also called the Hammer of the Scots due to his involvement in the Scottish succession, when he decided the competing claims of John Balliol and Robert Bruce to the Scottish Crown.

Flodden was the last medieval battle fought on British soil, when a Scottish force of at least 30,000 men, led by King James IV, encountered a smaller English force assembled by the Earl of Surrey on behalf of King Henry VIII.

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Archaeologists find King's hammered coin at site of Anglo-Scottish conflict which was last medieval battle on British soil (www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art528492-archaeologists-find-king-hammered-coin-at-site-of-anglo-scottish-conflict-which-was-last-medieval-battle-on-british-soil)