I recently received an email from a Mr Philip Wills and with his permission I am going to display it here as I feel that it will be of interest to others. I would like to express my thanks to Philip for sending the email & pictures featured below. A joint finder was a Mr Dennis Hewings. My thanks also go to him for his permission to display the coins here.

If anyone has any comments regarding this find or knows of anything similar please post a message at www.chatarea.com/staverton or contact me on web-enquiries@staverton.com

Dear Graham
I found your history web site recently and thought perhaps you may like to know that my friend and I unearthed  a little history within the parish of Staverton in the form of a 700year old hoard of 37 silver coins.
These coins were silver pennies from the reigns of Edward Ist, 2nd and 3rd  1279 --1351.
We found them in1999 whilst searching a field with metal detectors with the permission of the owner.

These coins are on permanent display  at Totnes Museum.

The following is an extract of a report by Dr. Cook of the British
Museum:-

All these coins, except the counterfeit, will have been struck to the sterling standard, and hence consist of 92.5% fine metal. The fineness of the counterfeit would need to be tested to be ascertained, but it does not look to be particularly base. In any case, it was clearly intended to pass muster as a silver penny in currency with the others.All of these coins could certainly have circulated at the same time, in the mid 14th century, as they echo the evidence for the nature of the currency of many hoards from this period, and nothing in the group would need to be specially accounted for. Although the find is not very large, representing the sum of 3s.1d. (equivalent to something like £75 in modern terms), it is nevertheless also likely that it represents one single deposit.

Finds made on sites where large numbers of individually lost pieces have been recovered are different in nature; halfpennies and farthings would be included, and early coins, dating from before the partial recoinage of c.1300 would be as numerous as later ones. I would feel justified on the numismatic evidence in suggesting that this find represents one batch of material lost or deposited in the late 1340s, but before the 1350s, when a significant alteration of the weight standard quickly changed the composition of the currency. Thus, as the coins found are of good silver and were likely to have been deposited on a single occasion I would suggest that they fulfil the criteria of Treasure as defined under the Act.
Dr.Cook

I understand the plague was rampant in the Totnes area in the middle 1300's and perhaps the person that buried them was carried off with that!!  Picture attached
best wishes
Philip Wills