The Dolphin Inn Hoard: Re-examining the Early Nineteenth-Century Discovery of a Mid-Thirteenth-Century Hoard from Cambridge

This paper discusses the evidence relating to a mid-thirteenth-century hoard of coins and jewellery discovered beneath a cellar in Cambridge in 1817. Five gold rings with gemstone settings survive from this group and are now in the possession of Trinity College library; these rings are examined, and their date and significance explored. The history of the material—from its initial discovery up until the mid-nineteenth century when the rings were donated to the college—is also investigated. Finally, the original context of the hoard is discussed, including its possible association with the medieval Jewry of Cambridge.