BBC Antiques Roadshow guest's emotional discovery after unearthing 'unusual' item
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BBC's Antiques Roadshow treated viewers to a Christmas cracker of an episode, reflecting on touching stories from the past while unraveling wartime history with a poignant update. Taking place in Liverpool's Sefton Park, the show revealed a remarkable set of silver spoons given by a grateful Dutch jeweller to a British soldier as a token of appreciation during WWII. Jewellery expert Kate Flitcroft marvelled: "I have never seen anything like them before because they're made of Dutch coin.".
The proud owner reminisced: "They are my father's spoons. The man who gave them to my father was a jeweller and he lost his son in the war. The jeweller thought so much of my dad that he made these spoons for him.". After the initial broadcast, a Dutch viewer contacted the show with insider knowledge about the spoons' secret significance, reports the Liverpool Echo. For the special, the spoon owner met a history lecturer who explained: "During WWII in the Netherlands, people were making things out of these coins. This was a good way of reminding yourselves where your loyalties lay as the queen sat in the centre of the coin.
"Was this something Germans liked? No. So from 1941, a lot of Dutch money was replaced by German money without a queen. These spoons are a type of silent resistance to show the resilience of Dutch people.". The woman unearthed another poignant piece of her family history after attending Antiques Roadshow, revealing: "My dad never received any medals. When I came on to Antiques Roadshow it opened my memory to that realisation so I thought I'd ask.".
