£50,000 reward offered in hunt for rare coins stolen in 2007

A £50,000 reward is being offered implicit the unsolved theft of a batch of aboriginal Scottish coins that were stolen 17 years ago.

More than 1,000 coins from the 12th and 13th centuries were taken from the location of Lord and Lady Stewartby successful Broughton, adjacent Peebles successful the Scottish Borders, successful June 2007.

The stolen haul spans a play of astir 150 years, from astir 1136 erstwhile the archetypal Scottish coins were minted during the reign of David I up to astir 1280 and the reign of Alexander III.

The precocious Lord Stewartby entrusted the remainder of his postulation to The Hunterian Museum astatine the University of Glasgow successful 2017, but the missing coins person ne'er been found.

Crimestoppers announced its maximum reward of £20,000 - which is disposable for 3 months until 27 February - successful a caller entreaty connected Wednesday. An anonymous donor is helping to boost the full reward magnitude to £50,000.

It is hoped it volition punctual radical to travel guardant with accusation which could pb to the betterment of the missing treasures and the condemnation of those liable for the crime.

Angela Parker, nationalist manager astatine Crimestoppers Scotland, said Lord Stewartby's haul was the "best postulation of Scottish coins ever assembled by a backstage individual".

Jesper Ericsson, curator of numismatics astatine The Hunterian, described the medieval coins arsenic smaller than a modern penny.

He added: "Portraits of kings and inscriptions whitethorn beryllium worn down to astir thing and the coins mightiness beryllium oddly shaped, possibly adjacent chopped successful fractional oregon quarters.

"You could acceptable 1,000 into a integrative takeaway container, truthful they don't instrumentality up a batch of space. They whitethorn look unremarkable, but these coins are the earliest symbols of Scotland's monetary independence.

"They are of genuinely important nationalist importance. Their harmless instrumentality volition not lone payment generations of scholars, researchers, students and visitors to come, but volition besides close a incorrect that Lord Stewartby ne'er got to spot resolved earlier helium died."

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Mr Ericsson pleaded with whoever has the coins to "return them to wherever they belong".

He added: "Give Scotland backmost its coins."

Lady Stewartby said her husband, who was a renowned numismatist, was conscionable five-years-old erstwhile helium was fixed his archetypal Scottish coin.

She added: "Over the adjacent 50 years, helium enactment unneurotic a postulation which included immoderate of the earliest Scottish coins.

"Lord Stewartby told maine and our children that they represented Scotland's past astatine a clip erstwhile fewer radical had entree to books oregon pictures."