Traders fleeing the fire dropped coins found in the Thames

For over 300 years, coins dropped by merchants fleeing a fire lay at the bottom of the River Thames. Now they're set to fetch thousands of pounds at auction.

There were other items in the river too. They belonged to traders who had dumped them there from their pockets and bags. They were fleeing a great fire in 1666. The old artefacts and coins were discovered by Roger Green. Basically, they weren't coins as such, but tokens. They were used to pay in London and Green has been collecting them for years.

The collection is expected to sell for between £15,000 and £20,000. The auction is being handled by the well-known Hansons Auctioneers. "Coins found in the river tend to be in good condition because they burrow into the mud that protects them. I kept the found collection for a while, but I'm getting older and don't have as many opportunities to add new pieces, so I decided to sell the coins," said Green.

He's been collecting different things since he was a young boy. In fact, his grandmother bought him an album and a packet of stamps from abroad when he was eight. The enthusiastic grandson found a new hobby that he continued to enjoy as an adult.

"Finding objects in rivers, however, gave my hobby a whole new dimension. Over the years I have found many coins and tokens. Mostly from London or Southwark, but also other parts of England," Green added.

The rarest token he found was at Erith in south-east London. "It was a reward for some very hard digging. I hope the sale of my collection will inspire others to take up the hobby too," Green hopes.

He discovered a total of 360 coins in the Thames, bearing the year 1966. That was the time of the Great Fire of London, when seventy thousand people lost their homes. The flames raged from 2 to 6 September. In total, over thirteen thousand homes were destroyed. Several landmarks, including St. Paul's Cathedral, were also burned.

London was thrown into panic and chaos. "Water from the Thames was used to extinguish what they could. Boats carrying people fleeing the fire were also leaving the river. And some were throwing away their valuables. In London at that time, tokens were used to pay for things. It was the local currency that could be paid for between 1648 and 1673," said Alan Smith, a numismatic expert at Hansons Auctioneers.

Sources: https://metro.co.uk/, https://hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/