An expert gasped when he saw coins unearthed by two men now convicted of theft

On a sunny day in June 2015 amateur metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies were hunting for treasure in fields at a remote spot in Herefordshire.

The pair had done their research carefully and were focusing on a promising area just north of Leominster, close to high land and a wood with intriguing regal names – Kings Hall Hill and Kings Hall Covert.

George Powell

But in their wildest dreams they could not have imagined what they were about to find when the alarm on one of their detectors sounded and they began to dig.

Powell and Davies unearthed a hoard hidden more than 1,000 years ago, almost certainly by a Viking warrior who was part of an army that retreated into the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia after being defeated by Alfred the Great in 878.

Layton Davies

There was gold jewellery including a chunky ring, an arm bracelet in the shape of a serpent and a small crystal ball held by thin strips of gold that would have been worn as a pendant. Beneath the gold were silver ingots and an estimated 300 silver coins.

The law is clear: such finds should be reported to the local coroner within 14 days and failure to do so risks an unlimited fine and up to three months in prison. Any reward may be split between the finder, land owner and land occupier.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A coin from the hoard. Photograph: British Museum/PA

Powell and Davies, experienced detectorists from south Wales, chose a different route. Two days later they went to a Cardiff antiques centre called the Pumping Station and showed some examples of their find to coin dealer Paul Wells. He immediately knew they were very special.

The crystal ball pendant turned out to be the oldest item, probably dating from the 5th or 6th century, while the ring and arm bracelet are thought to be 9th- century. They were described as priceless in court. Nothing like the arm bracelet has ever been seen by modern man before.

But if anything, the coins turned out to be even more significant. Among them were extremely rare “two emperor” coins depicting two Anglo-Saxon rulers: King Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia. They are important because they give a fresh glimpse of how Mercia and Wessex were ruled in the 9th century at about the time England was morphing into a single united kingdom.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A dark gold arm bangle with a dragon’s or serpent’s head design from the ninth century. Photograph: British Museum/PA

Still, the pair did not contact the authorities. Instead Powell got in touch with another treasure hunter, Simon Wicks from East Sussex, and two weeks after the find he presented himself at upmarket coin auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb in Mayfair, central London.

Wicks put a selection of the coins found in Herefordshire, including a pair of the two emperors, in front of one its leading experts. The expert gasped when he saw the coins and suggested the two emperors could be worth £100,000 each.

Meanwhile, whispers that Powell and Davies had struck gold had begun to circulate and on 6 July – 33 days after their discovery – the Herefordshire finds liaison officer, Peter Reavill, contacted Powell and Davies and gently asked if they had anything to tell him about.

Powell initially replied with a firm denial but they eventually handed over the gold jewellery and an ingot. However, they insisted they had only found a couple of damaged coins that they did not need to declare.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A rock crystal pendant chased in gold. Photograph: British Museum/PA

But the net was closing in. Police visited Wells’ house and he showed them five coins from the hoard that had been stitched into his magnifying glass case. When he was arrested he said: “I knew it would come to this.”

Thirty coins from the hoard including five of the two emperors have been recovered and, together with the gold jewellery and silver ingot, are safe in the hands of the British Museum.

Gareth Williams, a specialist in the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings at the museum, said the coins were changing historians’ understanding of the period.

Alfred has long been seen as a significant figure in English history, while Ceolwulf II has been regarded as a much less important personage, a puppet of the Vikings. The presence of both kings on the two emperor coins suggests some sort of pact between the pair. But the rarity of the coins also suggests that Alfred quickly dropped his ally, who was just about written out of history.

The presence of the coins near Leominster suggests that part of the Viking army was in the area after being defeated in Wiltshire in 878 before moving east via Watlington in Oxfordshire.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A coin from the hoard. Photograph: British Museum/PA

In a striking coincidence another metal detector found a Viking hoard in Watlington in October 2015 – four months after the Herefordshire hoard was unearthed. That hoard was declared and is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Williams said: “The two hoards together are fundamentally changing our view of history. These coins are encouraging us to go back to the written sources and re-examine them.”

The hoard may eventually be exhibited at the British Museum and in a museum in Herefordshire.

Meanwhile the four men could face jail terms much longer than the three months for failing to declare a find. The value of the hoard and the attempt to hang on to it permanently means that Powell and Davies at least could be facing years in prison.

But because only 30 of the Herefordshire coins out of an estimated 300 have been recovered, the picture is incomplete. Judge Nicolas Cartwright made it clear he believed they knew where the missing coins – worth millions – were.

The police hunt for these precious pieces of English history goes on.