I Found a Hoard of 748 Roman and Iron Age Coins

Table of Contents

I started my fascination with history when I was four years old, and it all began with watching Indiana Jones.

I used to go on fossil hunting trips to my family's farm, searching for interesting relics. Most of the time, I would find fossilized seashells or unusual stones, but it was during those adventures that my passion for uncovering the past really developed.

I received my first metal detector from my grandmother when I was 12 years old, and from that point forward, my interest in history, especially Roman history, really took off.

We have a Roman road that runs right by our farm in Suffolk, and I used to explore along there. I would often imagine Roman soldiers walking down that road, which made it feel like I was stepping back in time.

I work for my family's meat-cutting business, but metal detecting and historical treasure hunting is what I'm really passionate about.

I discovered my first Roman coin when I was 16 years old. It was a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius. Finding that coin was a truly enchanting experience.

I came across it near a pond, or more accurately, a type of spring, which is noteworthy, as I later found out that springs are associated with many ancient Roman treasures, such as the Helmingham Hall hoard, which I first discovered back in 2019.

Discovering the Roman hoard at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, England, has been a truly unforgettable experience for me. Who would have thought that someone with a passion for Roman history like myself would stumble upon the largest Roman treasure ever found in Britain, a find that's nothing short of enchanting.

The day before I stumbled upon it, I was studying Roman roads and ancient pathways in Suffolk. I spotted a peculiar crop mark in the corner of a field, so I decided to do some research. I discovered it was located near a field pond or natural spring, which piqued my interest, so I headed back the following day.

The site at Helmingham is located near the village of Ashbocking, where I reside. I have explored this land thoroughly because I've always been drawn to it, as I'd heard that Roman roads were in the area.

Within 15 minutes, I found two Roman brooches, which were the clues that showed people had been walking there about 2,000 years ago.

I walked a bit farther into the field and spotted my first coin: a denarius from Julius Caesar's time, which dates back to between 46 and 47 BC.

I wiped away the clay and saw a vivid image of Caesar towering over defeated Gauls. It sent a massive surge of adrenaline through my body and gave me a chilling shiver down my spine.

I was stunned. That coin alone would have been a lifelong treasure. I was tempted to rush home and call the landowner with the news, but I decided to keep searching the same spot.

I then came across another coin, and another. In the next few hours, I discovered a total of 180 denarii.

I remember when I had about three or four coins in my hand. I just held them out, looked at them, and then up to the sky. I realized that I'd actually achieved my childhood dream of finding a treasure trove.

When I was 16, I had to do a photojournalism project where we had to create the front page of a newspaper. The headline on mine was: A Local Teenager Discovers the Largest Roman Treasure Trove Ever Found.

It had finally become a reality all those years later.

I phoned my dad, David, to share the news, and he was stunned. He even spent two nights at the dig site to guard the treasure. I always refer to him as the unheralded hero of this story.

I didn't realize it then, but I was on the verge of discovering one of the most impressive Roman treasure troves ever uncovered.

The moment I realized I had discovered the actual treasure trove was unforgettable. The sun was beginning to set, and after finding several coins, I received a strange signal from my metal detector.

It sounded unusual, a mix of iron and non-metallic sounds, and I was about to leave, but I decided to dig anyway. When I lifted the spade, I saw pottery pieces with coins embedded inside. That's when I realized I had uncovered the buried treasure.

It was a Sunday evening. At home that night, I sat down at our kitchen table and placed the coins on some paper towels, and a sudden thought struck me.

These coins belonged to someone—possibly a high-ranking Roman soldier who came to Britain during the invasion and, for some reason, never returned to collect them. It was a humbling experience.

Another idea is that the coins may have been buried by an Iron Age community as a communal effort, possibly as a gift to the gods or to try to protect themselves from the Roman invaders. The reason behind the burial of those coins is a very intriguing question.

We reached out to archaeologists right after breakfast the next morning so they could start the excavation process, which took two days, and we accompanied them back to the site for that.

It took me three months to recover the majority of the treasure from the site, which included a total of 748 gold and silver coins from the Roman and Iron Age.

I returned to the field after the archaeologists spent two days excavating the area, and in the process, I also discovered signs of a previously unknown Roman settlement.

I discovered a Roman pestle that might have been used by a woman to grind charcoal into a type of eyeliner. I also found numerous fragments of Roman pottery, including decorative plates and fine dinnerware.

One of the coins in the treasure trove was a gold aureus of Emperor Claudius, the very leader who led the invasion of Britain. This connection made the discovery even more remarkable. It's quite heavy and a stunning coin, and it has been acquired by the museum in nearby Ipswich.

It would have been extremely valuable at the time, equivalent to carrying hundreds of dollars in today's money.

The oldest coin in the collection dates back to 206 BC, during the Roman Republic, and the newest one is from the time of Emperor Claudius, around 46-47 AD.

When I discovered the treasure, I filed a claim as required by law. Under the treasure process, museums are given the first opportunity to purchase the coins, and they ended up buying 68 of them. The remaining coins were then returned to me and the landowner.

We put them up for auction and they were initially valued at $100,000. However, they sold for over $176,000. This highlights the strong interest in Roman history, as the Roman Empire is a very popular subject right now.

I recently went back to the location of a podcast I'm working on with my friend Paul, and while we were filming, I stumbled upon an ancient gold coin from the Iron Age.

This is a gold coin from King Cunobelin, a ruler in pre-Roman Britain who passed away in 41 AD, just before the Roman invasion, and it features a beautiful image of a horse on one side and a barley stalk on the other.

Even after all these years, I'm still finding treasures at this site. It was a truly astonishing discovery. Gold comes out of the ground in a remarkably pure and impressive form. The coin is still in almost pristine condition.

I'm not into metal detecting for the money. It's never been about that. I do it because I'm passionate about history and the thrill of holding items that haven't been touched since the person who lost or buried them hundreds or thousands of years ago. It's like experiencing a different time.

The person who lost that gold stater of Cunobelin, for instance, lived during the Roman conquest of Britain, a pivotal moment in history. To handle that coin again after 2,000 years was truly exceptional.

I've discovered many beautiful items during my searches, including several Roman coins, like one featuring Faustina the Younger, the wife of Marcus Aurelius, and another of Constantine the Great that depicts a soldier spearing a fallen horseman.

One of my favorite discoveries was a medieval seal matrix used to authenticate documents. I found it in an area behind our farmhouse, where I also found a lot of medieval pottery, indicating that someone lived there as far back as the 12th and 13th centuries.

The seal matrix had a Latin inscription around its edge and a cross in the center. After conducting some research, we were able to uncover the original owner: Philip Govan, who may have resided on the property.

Archaeologists or finders will put these seals into hot wax to reuse them and get more information from the results. However, it took me 16 years to muster up the nerve to do this with Philip Govan's seal because I was so concerned about damaging it.

I came across another type of seal that I've found during my detection, which originated from the Vatican in Rome and was used to authenticate a grant or document.

One of my favorite discoveries is a Roman signet ring found near the Roman road on our property. It has a turquoise gemstone known as an intaglio. When I cleaned the dirt off its surface, I noticed a figure engraved into it, holding a club – a depiction of Hercules.

Who last wore it? We'll likely never know, but it's possible that a Roman soldier walking along the very road that borders our farm was the last person to put it on. When I first put the ring on my little finger, a surge of adrenaline coursed through me.

Near the spot where the Helmingham hoard was buried, there was a well-known Roman site that had been discovered 30 years prior. I visited the landowner to see if I could conduct some metal detecting on the property, and I spoke with a farmhand who told me that it was unlikely we would find anything.

I decided to give it a try and see what I could find. And I did come across something: A Roman terret ring was discovered that was once part of a chariot, attached to the bridle. When I told the archaeologist about it, they said they had never seen one that large before. This is yet more proof that Romans were living in the area.

For me, that's what it's all about - being able to contribute to our understanding of history.

You do have to know what you're looking at, though. I came across a stunning Roman quern-stone—a grindstone used for processing food like grains—partially buried in a hillside, which made me think a farmer had probably thought it was just a large rock and carelessly discarded it.

To be a successful metal detectorist, you need to do the research so you can piece together the clues you find.

I'll never stop searching. Who knows what I'll discover next? Perhaps a treasure trove of Anglo-Saxon riches is in my future. We live near Sutton Hoo and its famous ship burial.

I'll keep searching because every discovery I make brings me closer to uncovering the past, and that's exactly why I do it.

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All views expressed in this text are the author's own.

As related to Shane Croucher.

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