Edward VI base penny

The Edward VI base penny is a coin Sean Callaghan found at the excavation site on the Monday Katy Devlin died. Its importance to the investigation came not from any established connection between the coin and her death, but from the circumstances of its discovery: Callaghan carried it to the finds shed on his trowel, then left the tool there. The coin consequently helped place the missing trowel—and the access to it—within the same day as the killing.

Discovery at the excavation

Callaghan told investigators that the coin had excited the people on the dig because the team had found only about ten coins there. He took it to the finds shed to show Ian Hunt, the site archaeologist. The account places the discovery on the Monday, a few hours before Katy died, though it does not establish the coin’s precise location within the excavation or connect it to the crime scene.

Callaghan carried the coin on his trowel rather than handling it directly. He explained that oils from hands could damage an old coin. That practical detail became important for a reason unrelated to the coin’s archaeological value: it tied the object’s journey to the particular tool whose disappearance became central to the investigation. The coin was being brought for examination; the trowel was the means of carrying it.

Identification and handling

Hunt was enthusiastic about the find and consulted books to identify it. He later confirmed the account by checking his logbook, and identified the coin as an Edward VI base penny from the early 1550s. He also explained that the identification had taken some time because there was no coin specialist at the site; his own specialty was medieval archaeology. The coin therefore had a definite historical identification, but its precise significance to the excavation was not described beyond its rarity there and the interest it generated.

The delay in identification does not weaken the coin’s value as a timeline clue. Callaghan’s recollection placed its discovery on Monday, and Hunt’s logbook independently confirmed that date. The logbook check corroborated when the find occurred; it did not, by itself, establish what happened to the trowel afterward. Those parts of the sequence came from Callaghan’s account and the investigation’s separate evidence about the missing tool.

The coin and the missing trowel

After showing the coin to Hunt, Callaghan left his trowel on a table in the finds shed at about half past five on Monday evening. He said he returned the following morning to retrieve it, but it was gone. He had initially supposed that someone had picked it up for him. When investigators later asked about its disappearance, the Monday discovery supplied a memorable reference point in his work routine and helped them establish when he had last left the tool in the shed.

The investigation treated the trowel’s disappearance as significant because it matched the implement used in the assault on Katy. Investigators described the finds shed as locked at night, and the subsequent forensic update reported no sign that either lock had been forced or picked. These facts made access to the shed and the tool’s timeline matters for the inquiry. The coin did not identify who took the trowel, and Callaghan’s account did not by itself prove who had access to it; its contribution was to anchor the tool’s known presence in the shed on the Monday Katy died.

Evidentiary significance

The coin’s role is a small but consequential example of how an ordinary task at the excavation became part of the murder investigation. It was found as an archaeological object, handled cautiously to avoid damage, and taken to Hunt for identification. In retrospect, the trip also fixed the trowel’s last known use before Callaghan discovered it missing. The object’s relevance thus depended on its association with a person, a tool, and a date, rather than on any evidence that the coin itself had been involved in the crime.

That distinction limits what the penny can establish. It supports a Monday chronology: Callaghan found the coin, brought it to Hunt, and left his trowel in the finds shed; Hunt’s logbook corroborated the discovery date, a few hours before Katy’s death. It does not resolve who removed the tool, when exactly it was taken, or whether the coin had any further connection to the events. Its importance lies in narrowing the sequence investigators had to explain, not in providing a complete account of it.