The Department of Coins and Medals in the British Museum deals with a high volume of coin hoards of each year, some of which are very large (for example the Roman hoards from Frome, Somerset and Beau Street, Bath). The introduction of the Treasure Act (1996) and the success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme have played a part in the increasing volume of finds being reported and the development of an efficient system for administering this work. This paper outlines our approach to dealing with these finds, from discovery and conservation to cataloguing. It discusses how this approach has developed and the challenges and opportunities it presents. In particular, there has been progress in approaches to the retrieval and conservation of coin hoards, and in the successful acquisition of coin hoards by local museums.
