I’m Alastair Willis, the numismatics curator at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. I recently discovered an amazing story while assessing coins and medals we have on loan from other organisations. It involves a hoard of medieval coins found at Caernarfon Castle in 1911, which Cadw has been lending to us since 1968.

The notes on our collections management system said, ‘Found 34' below the basement level of the Granary Tower, in the filling of a garderobe pit at the west end of the tower, “adhering” in a pile’. Wait a sec, isn’t a garderobe a medieval toilet??

Indeed, a garderobe is a term commonly used for a toilet in a medieval castle. The garderobe comprises of a seat over a long shaft which usually empties into the castle moat or a pit.

Medieval coin hoards were often hidden with the intention of recovery – savings collected over a period of time or coins hastily buried in an emergency. Sometimes, they are accidental losses, for instance a dropped or mislaid purse.

In this scenario, it is difficult to imagine that the person who deposited the coins intended to retrieve them from what I can only assume was a warm, dark, stinking hole. Doing so would have been disgusting and rather bad for your health.

The coins – 31 silver pennies dating to between 1280 and 1319 – would have amounted to more than 20 days’ pay for a soldier in the garrison. The fact that they were found adhering to each other suggests they were originally held in a purse or bag. Imagine dropping that much money or something of the same value (your phone perhaps?) into a toilet at a festival. It’s unlikely you would seriously consider trying to recover it.

You can probably now imagine the horror of whoever owned them, just about to spend a penny, when they saw their hard-earned cash disappearing down the shaft and hearing a chink, clink, splosh.

It’s unexpected, excruciating but relatable human stories around coins like this that really stick in my mind when I’m working. This hoard has led me in surprising research directions – I certainly know a lot more about medieval loos than I did before.