1/15 Hello! I am Maria Marsh from the Athelstan Museum and I would like to introduce you to the Malmesbury Coin Hoard, which has been the focus of a dedicated team of volunteers and conservators for 4 years, but one that is also much loved by all those involved. #SMACon2020

2/15 The hoard of 1266 Late Roman nummi was found by a metal detector in September 2012. It was the surprise of his life! Somehow it survived the Wiltshire clay in a field that had been ploughed forever. It did not look too promising at first even in a broken pot. #SMACon2020

3/15 Athelstan Museum went on to get funding for this treasure in February 2015, and thoughts soon turned to getting all the coins conserved and put on display. And so the volunteer project began. Amazingly it was not hard to get people interested ancient coins. #SMACon2020

4/15 It turned out that acquiring the coins from the British Museum was one thing, but getting funding and planning for their conservation was an even larger task helped out by the generosity of local donations,NHLF, AIM and Wiltshire Council.

5/15 Wiltshire Conservation was chosen for their approach to mechanical cleaning, although we knew this would take longer, it seemed best for the coins and it offered the chance for volunteer training in museum skills of packaging, photography, filling out forms :) #SMACon2020

4/15 It turned out that acquiring the coins from the British Museum was one thing, but getting funding and planning for their conservation was an even larger task helped out by the generosity of local donations, HLF, AIM and Wiltshire Council. #SMACon2020

6/15 It has been tricky to co-ordinate with the conservators at times and many questions about the work were asked at the beginning by volunteers. It was harder explain to museum members and the board. Tours of the lab helped a lot! #SMACon2020

7/15 How to Love 1266 Roman Coins became the second name for the project especially as work on them was often interrupted. There were slow downs with staffing at conservation and life’s ups and downs for all of us. We may have underestimated the time needed a bit. #SMACon2020

8/15 No one gave up trying to record the coins and everyone feels they are an expert now. We enjoy taking the coins out for other people to see up close. #SMACon2020

9/15 We visited other museums with hoards and Roman stuff to inspire us about how to display the hoard. Not an easy thing to do well we found but we had great fun in Bath, Salisbury, Cirencester, Oxford - now everyone has an opinion. #SMACon2020

10/15 We have all learned so much about the Romans but do we know more than school children? Kids love handling REAL coins and knowing Romans lived in their area. #SMACon2020

11/15 We were really getting into our stride and even started to think about the display case and getting Clive to stop by again BUT Covid19 struck and put us on hold again! #SMACon2020

12/15 We found new ways to stay in touch while we waited for things to get better and for the conservators to go back to the lab. We Zoomed with the intention of working on books and children's activities but mainly we chatted, had tea and did Roman quizzes. #SMACon2020

13/15 Back together again if a little different but still the same. A least for a short while, before we were once again separated. #SMACon2020

14/15 About half way into the project - or when we were supposed to finish - I stopped over worrying and started to enjoy the journey. Having fun and learning something new has been great, and being so close to real archaeology is a real bonus for all of us. #SMACon2020

15/15 We still have much work to do: Covid safe events to plan, publications, talks, a display to make and there are still questions to be answered on hoards, metal corrosion/metal content. Fortunately I have the most amazing volunteer team! Thank you! #SMACon2020