Archaeologists carefully excavated the jar and discovered it was an extremely valuable treasure.
Dave Crisp is a chef at a hospital in England and an amateur treasure hunter. According to CNN, this man accidentally discovered a buried treasure while using a metal detector in a field near Frome, Somerset in southwest England. Initially, Dave only found 21 old coins.
But following the coin trail, he discovered an ancient jar filled with coins. Immediately, he sought and asked for help from archaeologists to avoid damage. They carefully excavated the jar, determining that it was a huge treasure with 52,500 coins and worth up to 1 million USD (more than 24 billion VND, according to the current exchange rate).
The jar containing the treasure is just a normal jar, used to store food with a total weight of 160kg. It is known that these coins date from the years 253 to 293, and most are made of silver or copper.
Roger Bland – Head of Portable Treasures and Antiquities at the British Museum, responded in an interview with CNN: “Dave did the right thing, he didn’t dig and excavate it all himself (avoid manipulation). This is a huge amount of coins once found in a jar in England. We think someone buried this amount of money with no intention of getting it back. Maybe it was savings, or perhaps burying it in anticipation of an invasion or even taking it as part of an offering to the gods.”
Dave shared: “I’m very happy. While that’s great, money isn’t really that important. The important thing is that the person who discovered this treasure is me.”
Experts are said to have held an appraisal of the coin’s ownership, because by law, Dave would have to share the value of the treasure with the owner of the field where he found it.