Gold Broad coin

[Tafflaff (Rob)]

Hi has anyone come across this coin at all?

Gold Broads 

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Obverse of Cromwell Gold Broad
 
 
Reverse of Broad Showing 1656 Date
 
Gold Broads
The broad was a new denomination of coin issued only in the single year 1656 for Oliver Cromwell. It had a value of twenty shillings, and therefore replaced the gold unite, and could also be considered as the model and forerunner of the gold guinea, and eventually the gold sovereign.

[vitallius (Dave)]

Well Rob, I would think theres not many of them around? I would sure like to find one ........Dave

[bymatt666 (byron)]

what a lovely coin....hope i find one next time out.... .....byron

[davtec (dave)]

no not yet but i wish had

[U.K. Brian]

There's a lot of confusion with coin names. Gold pieces of James the First were known as "Jacobuses". In the 1600's there were references to gold "Broad Pieces" pre Cromwell. So you could have a gold Broad Piece that wasn't the Cromwell issue. Old Pepys again had a thousand broad pieces as a part of his fortune and I can't see the King having Cromwells coins in circulation in 1667, seven years after the Restoration so perhaps it was or had become a slang term for "large".

Re the chance of a hoard of gold coins, even the general public who had gone into business left huge hoards. A poulterer of Gracechurch Street in London who died in 1662 suprised everyone by having in excess of 40,000 hidden in his home.

This sort of thing is still going on with Sovereign hoards hidden from Victorian times, then when the First War occured and again in the Second World War. By the time of  the Cuba Crisis, Krugerrands were added to the potential finds and no doubt Korea/Vietnam, even the Falklands added to the number of hoards. This is one of the untapped fields of profitable "treasure hunting".

Sorry to drift off topic but people seem to think that gold means old whilst in fact there's people hiding their wealth day in, day out and the loss of faith in the banks has probably led to more wealth being hidden today than ever before in modern times.