Ancient Coins Worth £1 Million Found buried in farmer’s field

A hoard of rare Anglo Saxon coins value more than £1 million has been found in a farmer’s field by amateur treasure hunters.The stunning detection is one of the most important finds in Britain in recent years.

The coins – over 1,000 years old – were unearthed during a Christmas dig controlled by the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club in rural farmland near Aylesbury, Bucks.Over 100 people turned out to take part in the festive hunt and they were amazed to find the collection of more than 5,000 silver coins.

The perfectly sealed pieces, which mark the faces of Anglo Saxon kings, were in a lead bucket which was hidden two feet underground.

Experts said the really rare coins could be worth more than £1 million and club leader Pete Welch said the find was ‘very significant’.

‘They’re like mirrors, no scratching, and buried in fact carefully in a lead container, deep down. Pete, said
‘It looks like only two people have handled these coins. The person who made them and the person who covered them.
‘Metal detecting is a bit casual but most farms have a bit of history so you have a chance of finding something.

‘I think this was a case of you either move to the right or move to the left and on this holder our member moved the right way.
‘I’m just hoping that these coins will end up in a museum for the public to see. I wouldn’t want to see them go to a private collector.’

The discovery of a entire of 5,251 coins was made during the annual dig on December 21 on rural farmland the group had visited before.After they were found archaeologist Ros Tyrrell was called to help dig them.

The coins are in ‘excellent condition’ and show the faces of some of the kings of England dating back 1,000 years.
They contain coins from the reigns of Ethelred the Unready (978-1016 AD) and Canute, or Cnut.

Mr Welch believes the hoard is equal in significance to the Staffordshire Hoard of gold and garnets found by a metal detectorist in 2009.He added: ‘We don’t know how many variations of the coins there are and when we do we will know how significant the find is.
This would have been a vast amount of money in its day. One coin alone would have been a lot back then.

A Bucks County Museum spokesman said: ‘This is one of the largest hoards of Anglo Saxon coins ever found in Britain.
‘When the coins have been correctly identified and dated, we may be able to guess at why such a huge treasure was hidden.’
He added that as the coins are valuable metal over 300 years old they fall within the remit of the Treasure Act.

They will now be taken to the British Museum for protection and classification before a coroner will decide whether they are legally treasure.

A museum will then be able to bid for the coins with the money from the sale being split between the land owner and the person who made the discovery.