BBC’s Antiques Roadshow delighted viewers with its Christmas special, revisiting some memorable items to uncover their stories since first appearing on the show.
In an episode set against the backdrop of Liverpool’s Sefton Park, expert Kate Flitcroft came across a unique set of silver spoons, which she noted were crafted from Dutch coins and given from a Dutch family to a British soldier during World War II. She said: “I have never seen anything like them before because they’re made of Dutch coin.”
The spoons belonged to the owner’s father, who received them as a gift from a jeweller who had lost his son in the conflict. The owner recalled: “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.”
Following the original broadcast, a Dutch viewer contacted Antiques Roadshow, revealing an “unusual secret” about the spoons. This prompted a return to the show for the owner, who met with a history lecturer delving into the deeper significance behind these artefacts, reports the Liverpool Echo.
The lecturer 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.”
The creation of these objects served as a quiet act of defiance, as the lecturer highlighted: “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 a personal history finding, revealing on Antiques Roadshow: “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.
“To my surprise, I received these three of his medals in the post. I was absolutely delighted. There was some acceptance for what my father had done and his part in the war.”