A pensioner with a hobby for metal detecting discovered a hoard of brown coins he initially thought were a pile of chocolate buttons.
But the 35 mud-covered Celtic coins actually turned out to be a treasure trove worth over £100,000 and dated to 55 BC when Julius Caesar was alive.
Tony Asquith unearthed the find while searching a recently ploughed field in August 2022 in Lenham, near Maidstone, in Kent.
After donning his spectacles and cleaning them he realised they were Celtic staters dating to 55 BC after Caesar had conquered Gaul and attempted to invade Britain.
The coins had a pre-sale estimate of £20,000 but were sold today at Mayfair-based auctioneers Noonans for five times that sum of £103,000.
Tony Asquith unearthed the find while searching a recently ploughed field in August 2022 in Lenham, Kent
The 35 mud-covered Celtic coins actually turned out to be a treasure trove worth over £100,000 and dated to 55 BC when Julius Caesar was alive
The coins showed a horse galloping to the right with a charioteers arm above
The coins were sold individually and had estimates of between £300 and £800, but they all smashed their estimate with one selling for £7,500.
Tony, a metal detectorist of 45 years, said he will split the money with the landowner.
He said: I am speechless at the result and cant believe it.
The coins were concealed inside a flint nodule which had broken open when the field was ploughed, scattering its contents.
The naturally occurring flint nodule is roughly spherical and the coins were tightly packed inside its hollow interior.
They showed a horse galloping to the right with a charioteers arm above.
Tony said: It was an amazing find. The recent ploughing of the field must have brought the nodule to the surface, and broke it open, scattering its contents of coins.
Nigel Mills, coins and artefacts specialist at Noonans, said: Using his Minelab Equinox 800, Tony at first just found some wire and a shotgun cartridge.
The coins discovered by Mr Asquith had a pre-sale estimate of £20,000 but were sold today at Mayfair-based auctioneers Noonans for five times that sum of £103,000
The coins were concealed inside a flint nodule which had broken open when the field was ploughed, scattering its contents
But then, he got a signal which revealed a brownish coin.
He was surprised to recognise this as a Celtic stater.
On looking down he saw what looked like a pile of chocolate buttons laid out.
Putting on his glasses, Tony realised that they were all Celtic staters!
The staters date to around 55 BC after Julius Caesar had conquered Gaul and attempted to invade Britain.
They all have a shallow domed obverse with a dished reverse that displays an abstract or devolved horse galloping to the right with a charioteers arm above.
The coins were concealed within the flint nodule which was formed 90-70 million years ago.
The hollow interior would originally have contained mud and the decayed remains of marine animals.
Julius Caesar (100 BC to 44 BC) was a Roman statesman who played critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire
The naturally occurring flint nodule (right) is roughly spherical and the coins were tightly packed inside its hollow interior
Ten other hoards of Iron Age gold coins contained in flint nodules have been found in Britain, but all of them are in museums.
Last year official figures confirmed the metal detecting boom in Britain caused a record for the amount of buried treasure found.
In 2022 there were 1,378 discoveries in total for England and Wales, which is the highest number of finds since records began in 1996.
Metal detecting has seen a massive boom in people taking up the outdoor hobby since lockdown, with experts explaining people had more time on their hands than before.
The total number of archaeological finds for 2022 was 53,000, but an object is only classed as treasure in the UK if it is at least 10 per cent of its weight is gold or silver, and is at least 300 years old when found.
This was updated last year to include an object that is at least partially of metal, is at least 200 years old, and provided exceptional insight into an aspect of national or regional history.
There were 1,378 treasure discoveries in total, according to provisional figures for 2022, which if confirmed will be the highest number of finds since records began in 1996
A Channel 5 TV thriller featuring metal detectorists was broadcast earlier this year. It stars Neil Morrissey and The Inbetweeners’ James Buckley as they break the law and refuse to declare their treasure find - instead trying to sell it on
However the volume of treasure finds has steadily increased since the introduction of the Treasure Act 1996, when only 24 items were classed as such.
In 1997 it had risen to 54. But by 2014 the amount of treasure had increased to more than 1,000 a year.
The popularity of the hobby has even inspired a Channel 5 TV thriller called Finders Keepers, which sees two metal detectorists unearth a hoard of Saxon gold and try to sell it on.
In November MailOnline broke down 2022s treasure hotspots, which included Norfolk in the lead on 95, followed by 83 in Hampshire, 81 in Kent and 75 in Suffolk.
The Ministry of Justice, which compiles figures from treasure findings from Coroners Courts, said there had been a big surge in metal detecting activity during (and also since) the pandemic.
In 2024 the definition of treasure has now been expanded to include objects of historical importance more than 200 years old and containing metals such as bronze.
Discoveries of treasure meeting these new criteria will be assessed by a coroner and will go through a formal process in which they can be acquired by a museum and go on display to the public.
The change to the law has been prompted after a number of discoveries fell outside the scope of the Act – although they were thankfully saved for the nation.
They included spectacular Roman finds such as the Ryedale Hoard – a collection of bronze objects – now at York Museum, and the Birrus Britannicus figurine, made of bronze, of a Roman wearing a heavy woollen cloak, now at Chelmsford City Museum.
THE TREASURE ACT OF 1996
Pictured: a treasure is found (stock image)
Under the UKs 1996 Treasure Act, finders of potential treasure are obligated to report their discoveries to the local coroner within a timeframe of 14 days.
The British Museums Portable Antiquities Scheme works to advise treasure finders of their legal obligations alongside writing reports for coroners on each individual discovery and running the administration for the Treasure disclamation process.
The Treasure Act facilitates the purchasing of finds by both national and local museums for the public benefit — with a reward from such typically given and split between the finder and the landowner.
The size of the rewards are equal to the full market value of the finds, as determined by the Secretary of State, following guidance from an independent panel of experts called the Treasure Valuation Committee.
The act also helps to guide what is and isnt considered as treasure — with the final determination for individual items made at an inquest.
At present, the following, for example, are defined as treasures:
- Finds of two of more 300-years-or-older coins from the same location, unless they contain less than 10 per cent gold or silver, in which case there must be at least 10 in the find to qualify as a treasure.
- Two or more prehistoric base metal objects found in association.
- Any non-coin artefact that is at least 300 years old and contains at least 10 per cent gold or silver.
- Any object found in the same place as another treasure.
- Deliberately hidden objects whose owners or heirs are unknown that are less than 300 years old but are made predominantly of gold or silver.
However, following a public consultation last year, a new definition is to be developed in the future — one which will account for the cultural and historical significance of a find, rather than just its material qualities.