A PUBLIC appeal has helped save a rare gold Saxon coin for Wiltshire, a bid of £18,000 securing it.

The coin was found in a field at East Grafton, near Pewsey, and now belongs to Wiltshire Museum in Long Street, Devizes.

It was bought at an auction held by Spink in London on Thursday. The coin had an estimate of between £8,000 and £12,000 and the museum was successful with its bid of £18,000.

Museum director David Dawson said: "We are delighted to have secured this important coin to be displayed at the Wiltshire Museum. It is a powerful demonstration of the importance of the Vale of Pewsey and the Kingdom of Wessex.

"We are very grateful to the almost 50 people from Wiltshire and across the world who have supported the purchase of this important coin, along with the help of our grant funders."

The museum was awarded grants towards the purchase by the Arts Council England, the Victoria and Albert Purchase Grant Fund and the Art Fund.

In addition, donations and pledges were given through a fundraising appeal launched by the museum.

The coin was struck in about AD655 and AD 675 and dates to the time of the beginnings of Christianity in Wiltshire and just after the burial of King Raedwald at Sutton Hoo and many of the objects found in the Staffordshire hoard.

Mr Dawson said the remarkable find shed new light on the Vale of Pewsey in the Saxon period. East Grafton was part of the parish of Bedwyn until medieval times.

There are a number of pagan Saxon cemeteries nearby and there was an early Saxon Royal manor at the Iron Age hill fort at Chisbury, just to the north of Great Bedwyn.

Later in the Saxon period, the focus moved to Great Bedwyn where there was a Royal Manor and an important Minster church. Bedwyn was held by King Alfred and it also had a Saxon mint in the time of King Edward the Confessor soon after 1,000 AD.

Bedwyn was very important and it was only with the building of its Norman castle that the focus moved to Marlborough.

Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, said: "We are delighted that Wiltshire Museum was successful in acquiring at auction such an important coin.

"Very few coins of such quality exist, and we are pleased to have played a role in ensuring that this beautiful example can remain forever in the very locality in which it was found.

"It’s a wonderful addition to the museum’s collection."