The Cuerdale Hoard

The largest Viking silver hoard ever found in Britain, and one of the largest anywhere: in 1840 workmen repairing the bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire dug into a lead chest holding some 8,600 pieces of silver, coins and hacksilver, buried around AD 905, perhaps a war-chest for the reconquest of Dublin. The finders were allowed to keep one coin each; the rest went to the Crown. Most is in the British Museum now. The riverbank is still there.