Early Medieval gold coins found near Ongar

The Epping Forest District Museum, at Waltham Abbey is trying to raise funds to purchase two Early Medieval gold coins - known as tremisses- found by a metal detectorist near Chipping Ongar. The tremisses have been valued to £7,500 by the Treasure Valuation Committee.
The finds, which were publicised prominently in Essex Live and the Daily Mail, are significant to the district and collection.
Object Information and Archaeological Significance
The two gold tremisses date from the late 6th to 7th century.
The first coin is Merovingian, made by a moneyer named Witta in the Vendée region of France.

The second coin is an early Anglo-Saxon coin depicting a right facing crowned individual holding a trident.

The Kingdom of Essex had links with Kent and the Franks.
Aethelbert of Kent, 589 to 616 AD, was the first English king to convert to Christianity. Aethelbert’s marriage to Bertha, daughter of the King of the Franks, connected the Kentish and Christian Frankish courts, linking the areas economically, socially, and culturally.
Aethelbert had intimate links to the Kingdom of Essex, of which the Epping Forest District would have been the western flank. King Sledd (587? - 604 AD) married Ricula, sister of Aethelbert, in the late 6th century and in 604 AD, Sledd’s son Saeberht, through the intervention of Aethelbert, became the first East Saxon king to convert to Christianity. Significantly for the district, it is believed that Saeberht built the first church at Waltham Abbey in 610 AD.
The first Anglo-Saxon made coins, modelled on coins produced at the same time in Merovingian France, were produced in Kent in 625 AD. The second coin is potentially a very early example of an English-made coin. The obverse depicts an individual wearing a diadem and holding a trident, possibly reflecting a local king or God.

Use of Collection
There are no comparable objects, chronologically, culturally, or stylistically, in the collection. If acquired the objects will be used in a number of displays, complimenting later Anglo-Saxon sceat and Viking coins in the collection, and will also form part of a resource for schools to use in local studies.
The Museum has a number of social media platforms, including a blog, on which photographs of the coins and discussions can be encouraged. The Museum is currently in the process of making its collections available online, making these coins, amongst other objects, more accessible to the public.
Importantly, the coins are evidence that the Kingdom of Essex, and the wider heptarchy, were not discrete, static entities existing in a vacuum, but were very much linked ethnically, culturally, religiously and economically with each other and the European continent.
The coins would be a significant addition to the Epping Forest District Museum collection and are important to the story of Chipping Ongar.
Report to H M Coroner:
Potential Treasure find from Ongar parish.
Treasure reference number: 2017 T1154 Find Spot: Ongar parish (Epping Forest District),
PAS Database number: -
Finder: Chris Kutler
Date of Discovery: November 2017
Circumstances of discovery: Found whilst metal-detecting on cultivated land with landowners permission.

Description: Two early medieval gold tremisses, probably dating to the early-mid seventh century. The first coin is Merovingian, and probably from Tidiriciacum (identified by Belfort as Trizay-sur-Lezay, and by Depeyrot as Thiré, both in the Vendée). The reverse inscription indicates a moneyer named Witta (VVITA) in whose name coins with this mint signature have been recorded.1 Although the obverse inscription is mostly illegible, the visible letters are consistent with a reading of TIDIRIACO, as the mint name appears on other known coins of VVITA. The second coin is an early Anglo-Saxon gold tremissis of the ‘Witmen derived’ type 1, otherwise best known from the Crondall hoard, and probably from the same die combination as Sutherland’s O2/R5.

Discussion: Both of these coins are rare, and the discovery of early Anglo-Saxon and continental gold tremisses together is of particular interest for understanding the nature of early gold economies in England and the circulation of foreign/domestic currency. In addition, coin 1 is possibly of a previously unknown type for this mint/moneyer. In composition and date, this small hoard bears striking similarity to other small mixed gold hoards from Shalfleet on the Isle of Wight in 2016/2017 and Hampshire in 2016, as well as a number of other finds of sixth-seventh century continental or pseudo-continental gold coins from the coastal counties of England’s south coast, esp. Kent. The hoard was probably deposited around the middle of the seventh century, and no earlier (on the basis of current type-chronologies) than c.630.

Recommendation: The coins have a precious metal content that exceeds 10% and are considerably more than 300 years old. It is therefore recommended that the finds detailed in this report be considered Treasure under the terms of the Treasure Act, 1996.