Metal detectors strike gold with 2,000-year-old Roman coins

The Roman hoard was made up of three cloth bags containing a total of 518 mixed copper coins which has all been placed in a leather satchel.

Metal detector enthusiasts Jeremy Daw and Martin Fulloway discovered the piece of history in the Leominster area, near Ludlow in a rarely well-preserved condition all grouped together.

Peter Reavill, finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: "That is what makes this really important.

"The field had been ploughed but it looks like the plough had missed them because they were buried so deep.

"Something like 99.5 per cent of coin hoards are found scattered but these were all together – that is what makes them very special.

"The people who found these realised what they found and called us while they were still in the ground which meant we could excavate the area."

Mr Reavill said that because the coins were found together it meant the different types of coins were used at the same time – information that would allow them to look again at other hoards that have been found.

But initially, Mr Fulloway said thought the clump was only a shoe or some rubbish.

He added: "As we were digging down through the soil with our hands, I spotted Jeremy had a handful of Roman coins.

"I said, 'Stop. I think we've got a hoard.'"

Mr Daw said the coins were possibly buried during a time of unrest in the Roman empire.

"It's been in the ground for 1,700 years and we are the first people to touch it," he said.

"We looked at each other and punched the air."

The earth was x-rayed at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and then examined by the British Museum.

The hoard was found by the pair back in July 2013, but it has taken months for the conservation and identification to be finished.

Mr Reavill said: "The block of soil containing the hoard was x-rayed at Birmingham museum and Art Gallery and that showed a series of three defined bags.

"Conservation work at the British Museum further revealed that these bags were placed within a leather satchel prior to deposition - parts of which were preserved by the coins corroding."

But something that took experts by surprise was finding leaves packed within the cloth bags – something that has never been seen before.

Mr Reavill said: "One theory is that is could be a way of offering smell – bay leaves often smell and could be an aromatic thing.

"Or they could be bubble wrap. If somebody wanted to bury the coins and didn't want anybody to hear them chinking, he might have put a handful of leaves in the bags to stop the noise.

"It has not been seen before so we don't know exactly hat it could be.

"That is the thing about this type of hoard, it lets us re-interpret everything that has gone before."

The coins range in date from AD 260-c290 and include eight coins of the Britannic Empire.

The hoard was declared treasure trove in June by the Hereford coroner and will now be valued by the British Museum.

Leominster Museum and Hereford Museum have expressed an interest in acquiring this hoard jointly for display in Leominster.

The value will be shared with the two finders, landowner and Hereford and Leominster Museum.

If each party is happy with the value, then the museum will be given several months to raise the cost which is passed to the finder and landowner as an ex-gratia payment.