A pair of treasure hunters recently unearthed nearly 2,000 Roman coins in the county of Cornwall, which is located on England’s southwestern tip.
A total of 1,965 coins—believed to have been stored in a pure tin container that was found among the coins—were discovered in a stone-lined pit located on a farmer’s field . The various coins are known as “radiates” and consist of bronze with one per cent silver. They range in date from 253 AD to 274 AD and were a common form of currency in the late Roman period.
“This is a rare type of container for coin hoards, which are more often found in pottery,” Anna Tyacke, liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Cornwall, told Cornwall Live.
Tyacke added the Royal Institution of Cornwall, which runsRoyal Cornwall Museum, is interested in purchasing the hoard, which is currently undergoing a valuation by the British Museum.
The hoard was discovered by Kyle Neil, 18, and Darren Troon, 45, both of whom are members of the metal detecting club Kernow Search and Recovery. They were working together to sweep a recently ploughed farmer’s field.
“We arrived at this field, which had just been ploughed, and off we went in one direction. I then found a Roman coin and within 10 minutes we had over 10 more,” Troon told Cornwall Live last month. “I knew then they we were on to something. They were all in a little area so I cordoned it off and we carried on. Five minutes later – it was like, ‘bingo.'”
While some of the coins were dirty, “a lot of them looked like the day they were cast,” added Troon.