Leicestershire schoolgirl discovers medieval coin on playing field

Head teacher Dave Bennett said all the staff were amazed at the find

A schoolgirl unearthed buried treasure when she discovered a medieval coin dating back nearly 1,000 years.

Vilte, a Year Nine pupil at The Winstanley School in Braunstone, Leicestershire, thought she had found a 5p piece on the school field.

With help from her history teacher, she discovered it was a penny from the time of William the Conqueror, around 1069.

It is thought the artefact could have been dropped by a worker as they travelled across the nearby Fosse Way.

The penny may have been exposed by recent building work at the school

Vilte said she was walking across the field with friends when it caught her eye, but as soon as she realised it was unusual, she took it to a member of staff.

"I took it to my history teacher and said 'do you know anything about this coin, because it looks really strange, and is definitely not your ordinary coin?'

"He started [researching] it and we found it dated back to quite a long time ago.

"It was really shocking. You don't expect to find that in your school," she said.

'Considerable loss'

The head teacher, Dave Bennett, said they had the coin's identity confirmed by experts at Leicestershire County Council.

He said: "Then we tried to work out why it was there and why Vilte had found it.

"We had just had some building work done, with a telegraph pole lifted out and back in, and it must have come from that.

"It's just amazing. All the staff, when they heard about it, were saying 'that can't be the case'."

Richard Clark, team manager for heritage at the county council, said the coin would have been a "considerable loss" for whoever had dropped it.

The future of the coin, currently in the school's safe, is yet to be decided, with the school saying they would like it displayed alongside the story of its discovery.