The Ludlow museum wanted the piedfort, and they had a right to it. They explained to Ms. Harding that she must go to the South Shropshire coroner and relinquish the piedfort.
This was the law according to the Treasure Act. Any applicable object more than 300 years old is considered treasure, and thereby owned by the state.
Did She Have a Choice?
The museum staff tried to inform her that her find is so historically valuable that she does not have a right to it. Any personal sentiment she held was not relevant to those in the official position of preserving history.
The authorities were on their side.
A Tug-of-war
While Ms. Harding thought she needed to make a decision about selling or keeping the relic, the folks at the Ludlow museum were not offering any options. The staff was ready to pay her for the piedfort so that it could be a part of the museum’s holdings.
She explained that it meant a lot to her, how she found it alongside her mum, but it wasn’t altering the staff’s claim that the authorities have the right to remove it from her possession.
“No”
Ms. Harding walked out of the museum with her piedfort in hand and did not look back.
If she could not hand over an important childhood memory for £2,000, she was not going to hand it over for nothing. She decided to keep it.
Hassled by Museum Correspondence
Having left the museum and leaving behind her innocent attempt to find out what her coin was, she thought that was the end of it. She was sorely wrong.
Letters arrived. Phone calls came in. All in request of her piedfort. And they kept coming. She ignored the calls and letters.