Museum in bid to buy Bronze and Iron Age treasure found in Dorset

The 40 gold stater coins originate from France in the 2nd century BCE

A museum is fundraising to acquire two "important and unusual" hoards of Bronze and Iron Age treasure that were found in Dorset.

Dorset Museum and Art Gallery wants to buy a group of 40 coins dating from 2nd Century BC, as well as a Bronze Age axe head, bangle and sword.

The combined value of the hoards is estimated at more than £32,000.

The museum has so far raised £17,757 through donations and the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund.

The rapier sword appears to have been deliberately broken in three pieces and buried

The gold stater coins, found at Charlton Marshall near Blandford Forum, are unusual because they were imported from France - made by a Gaulish tribe called the Baiocasses - and very few similar finds are known from the south coast of England.

A museum spokesperson said: "Finds like this hoard tell us about how people were travelling, meeting and exchanging ideas with others on the continent in the centuries before the Roman invasion."

The Middle Bronze Age hoard, found in Stalbridge, consists of a palstave axe head, a decorated bangle and a rapier sword that appeared to be deliberately broken in three pieces and buried.

Only two similar and incomplete examples have been identified in Britain but it does have similarities with Nordic rapiers from Scandinavia.

The Middle Bronze Age palstave axe was part of a hoard found in Stalbridge

Museum collections director Elizabeth Selby said: "These are important and unusual hoards and, if the museum is not able to acquire them, it is likely that the groups will be broken up and sold outside of the county.

"This will mean that all possibility of further research on the hoards, or opportunities for them to be displayed together, will be lost."

The coins have been valued at £15,300 and museum has so far raised £8,682, while the Stalbridge rapier hoard has been valued at £17,000 and £9,075 has so far been raised.

Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund is provided by Arts Council England Lottery funding and is managed by the V&A as part of its national work.

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