34-year-old archaeologist George Ridgway found 748 gold and silver coins on the grounds of Helmingham Palace, near Ipswich, Suffolk (Great Britain).
The coins date from 206 AD. Ave. me until 46 or 47, when Claudius ruled the Roman Empire.
More than 680 coins are expected to fetch £75,000 (around €89,000) at auction after several museums took some of the coins into their collections.
Mr. Ridgway started his treasure hunt with a metal detector back in 2019. in September.
“I decided to use my metal detector to investigate an unusual mark in a recently harvested barley field in Suffolk,” he explained. “I knew there was a Roman road near the field and I was hoping that the two things might be connected, but I didn’t find anything when I searched the area.”
He decided to go 27 m further and found two Roman bronze brooches dating to the middle of the 1st century AD.
“Another clear signal from the detector nearby helped to find the silver denarius, a coin that in 46 Ave. we were put into circulation by Julius Caesar,” Ridgway continued.
“I couldn’t believe that over the next three hours of searching I found another 160 silver Roman coins, several coins stuck to pottery fragments. I knew I had made an important archaeological discovery, so I called my father to guard the site overnight while we waited for the archaeological team to arrive and excavate. It took three months to unearth the entire find,” said the treasure hunter.
The hoard is believed to be one of the largest collections of Iron Age and Roman coins ever found in Britain.
The British Museum, as well as the Colchester and Ipswich museums, took 63 coins into their collections.
Mr Ridgway said he was inspired to start the “search” by his “childhood hero” Indiana Jones when he was just four years old and had dreamed of the Roman treasure ever since his grandmother bought him a metal detector for his 12th birthday.
“When I realized that I had found such a find, I was filled with indescribable excitement,” he said.
BBC parents.
2024-09-01 11:03:32