Nursery pupil stuns parents by unearthing 730-year-old penny

CHILDREN are renowned for taking home random items they find while out playing, convinced they have unearthed some long-lost treasure.

But when Finlay Ross presented his parents with his latest find, they were stunned to discover the four-year-old was in fact clutching a 730-year-old Edward I penny.

The budding archaeologist made the discovery while out playing with his grandmother Isobel Carey in a park near her South Gyle home.

He took it home to his parents, who did not pay much attention to it until they took a closer look the following day.

After doing some research on the internet, his mother Susan Ross realised that her son had stumbled upon a Edward I hammered coin, possibly dating back to 1279.

Mrs Ross, from Colinton, said: "He likes to look for bits of pottery, stones or skulls and he was looking for a rabbit skull when he found the coin.

"We sent him back the next day to see if he could find a whole stash of them – but he came back with a rabbit skull.

"He doesn't really understand how old this coin is, he just wants to keep it and play with it."

Finlay, who attends Bonaly Nursery in Colinton, is no stranger to coming home with unusual items. As well as his fascination for animal skulls and stones, he has also become interested in fossils after learning about dinosaurs in his nursery class.

On a recent trip to Center Parcs, the youngster found a series of fossils, including a fossilised clam shell.

Mrs Ross, 41, added: "I think it's fantastic. He's like a magpie and we've always said he has eagle eyes.

"He was learning about dinosaurs at nursery and since then he's taken a complete shine to everything like that."

Hiram Brown, owner of the Edinburgh Coin Shop on West Crosscauseway, identified the coin as dating back to sometime between 1279 and 1281 and valued the Edward I penny as being worth up to 30.

He said: "Edward I was a very prolific king so they did thousands of different types of mintings across the country.

"Because it's such a small coin people often come across them if they've been digging around somewhere as they have just got unnoticed before.

"This coin could have been one that was struck in Berwick-upon-Tweed given that he has found it in Scotland.

"There was a big hoard found in Aberdeen seven or eight years ago when they were digging the floors of a merchant's cellar.

"They are now in the museum because there were thousands and thousands of them, which was very unusual."