A TREASURE trove of gold and silver coins discovered on Holy Island has been saved for the region following a £30,000 fundraising campaign.

Builder Richard Mason stumbled across a pottery jug while renovating a house on the island of Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast, in 2003.

But it was not until 2011 that he realised the jug contained 17 rare coins.

After the find, dubbed the Lindisfarne Hoard, was declared treasure trove at an inquest, Newcastle's Society of Antiquaries (Sant) set about raising the £31,000 needed to buy it for the North-East.

That campaign has been successful, with almost £5,000 raised from public donations, and the hoard, featured on ITV’s Britain’s Secret Treasures last year, will go on display at the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle tomorrow (Friday, October 31).

The hoard includes ten gold and seven silver coins, the oldest being a silver groat of King Henry VI minted in the late 1420s or early 1430s and the latest being a silver sixpiece from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, minted in London in 1562.

The most valuable coin is a gold scudo – an old Italian currency – of Pope Clement VII (1523-34), the Pope who refused to grant King Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, sparking the Reformation in England.

The collection will be displayed alongside a ‘sister hoard’ of silver coins found at the same location in the 1960s and thought to have belonged to the same person.

Lindsay Allason-Jones, keeper of the collections of Sant, said: “For this hoard to join the Society’s collection is tremendous – that the public generously supported us to keep it in the North-East region makes it even more special. Thank you to everyone who helped Save the Hoard.”

Andrew Parkin, keeper of archaeology at the Great North Museum: Hancock, said: “We’re very grateful to everyone who has made this happen – it will now be displayed permanently in the museum for everyone to enjoy. We’re over the moon.”

Grants of £13,000 were made by both the V&A Purchase Fund and the Headley Museums Archaeological Acquisitions Scheme.