I found Roman coins worth £100,000... 20 minutes after buying first metal detector: Novice unearths 'nationally significant' find during first treasure hunt

Wesley Carrington found 55 solidi in woods near St Albans, Hertfordshire

The coins date back 1,700 years to the decline of the Roman Empire

Stunned experts later returned to the site and found another 104 coins

Gold touch: Wesley Carrington (in white) found a hoard of Roman gold coins worth £100,000 20 minutes into his first treasure hunt

It's always nice to encounter a little beginners’ luck when you’re trying out a new hobby.

But if the phenomenon strikes on your inaugural treasure hunt, it can mean a significant payday.

Wesley Carrington was just 20 minutes into his first metal detecting trip when he unearthed a hoard of Roman gold coins estimated to be worth £100,000.

Yesterday he jokingly suggested he may have ‘peaked early’ in his treasure hunting career.

The novice revealed he had bought a basic detector from a local shop and headed straight out to woods to try his new gadget.

His initial finds included a spoon and halfpenny piece but then the machine started bleeping to indicate metal some way beneath the ground.

After digging down around seven inches he unearthed the first of 55 ‘solidi’ – gold coins – dating back more than 1,600 years.

Stunned experts later returned to the site and discovered a further 104 coins, describing the haul as ‘spectacular’ and of ‘national significance’.

The remarkable story behind the find emerged yesterday at a formal inquest which was held to decide if the coins qualified as ‘treasure trove’.

Hertfordshire Coroner Edward Thomas ruled that they did and the coins will now be sent to the British Museum for a formal valuation before they go up for auction.

Any proceeds made could be split between Mr Carrington and the owner of the land where the find was made. Mr Carrington revealed he had exposed the treasure by copying techniques he had seen on a clip on YouTube.

He told the inquest in Hatfield: ‘I’ve never been metal detecting before. I just thought I would give it a go.’



He said he bought the cheapest detector he could find and then headed to the local woodland near St Albans in Hertfordshire.



‘I would say after about 20 minutes it beeped,’ he said. ‘I dug a hole.



I’ve watched a couple of YouTube clips to see how you do it.

‘I dug up a bit of ground and started breaking it up. I found a coin that was gold-coloured, with a Roman figure on it. I knew what it was but I didn’t realise the significance of it.’

He then found two together and as he carried on searching he reached a total of 55.

‘When they all started coming out it sort of merged into a blur,’ he said.

Lucky find: Mr Carrington discovered a hoard of solid-gold Solidi dating back nearly 1,700 years to the decline of the Roman Empire

Gobsmacked: David Sewell, who runs the Hidden History shop where Mr Carrington bought the Garrett Ace 150 (held in picture) he used to find the buried treasure He only stopped searching the site because it was getting dark.

Days later he returned to the shop where he had bought the £135 Garrett Ace 150 machine. He said shop owner David Sewell and business partner Mark Becher were ‘gobsmacked’ when he showed them the coins and asked them what he should do with them. They contacted the local council’s museum service and the shop owners, a local volunteer and museum and archaeology staff went to the site with a digger and resumed the search, finding even more coins.



Ancient: After Mr Carrington reported his amazing find, stunned experts returned to the woodland site near St Albans, Hertfordshire, and dug out a further 104 coins

The Old Court House in Hatfield: A coroner has decided the hoard qualifies as treasure, paving the way for the British Museum's valuation committee to determine exactly how much they are worth

Examination of the coins revealed they spanned the reigns of five or six Roman emperors, from Honorius to Gratian, and had been minted across different parts of Europe, including modern-day Italy, Germany, France, Turkey and Greece.

Julian Watters, the finds liaison officer for Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, said: ‘I’ve been in the job for ten years and it is certainly the most spectacular find.

‘I don’t know what the odds would be of this happening. Just to put it in context, I had only previously seen four Roman gold coins out of 50,000 finds.’