Undercover officers carried out a sting operation to stop a historically important Viking hoard of coins worth £766,000 being sold to an American buyer, a court heard.
Collectors Craig Best and Roger Pilling deny conspiracy to sell criminal property, namely 9th century Anglo-Saxon minted coins which had not been declared as “treasure” and therefore had not been handed to the Crown, jurors were told.
Durham Crown Court was told an expert believed that the silver coins were part of the Herefordshire Hoard, only some of which were recovered, and that they were “extremely significant for our understanding of the history of the unification of England”.
