Two suspected metal thieves are believed to be behind the theft of an archaeological hoard including hundreds of Anglo-Saxon beads and iron age coins, having apparently stumbled on the artefacts while scavenging for copper pipes and wiring.

Canterbury Archaeological Trust is appealing for the public’s help in scanning online sale sites such as eBay for any sign of the artefacts stolen in three raids last month at its warehouse, in the north-east of the city.

The trust is also furious with its landlord, Canterbury city council, because it claims the council failed to inform it, or the police, about metal theft on an adjacent derelict site.

The trust’s archive manager, Andrew Richardson, is devastated by the loss of at least 1,500 items, including Anglo-Saxon brooches and coins each worth thousands of pounds.

He is hopeful that the items will be recovered because the suspects are thought to be novice antique thieves. Richardson, who volunteers for Kent police in helping to tackle heritage crime, said: “We think they are opportunistic metal thieves who have stumbled across this great treasure trove of artefacts. So they probably won’t know what do with it or how to shift it on the antiquities black market.”

He added: “I think things like eBay are going to be particularly worth watching. We really need people to help us out.”

The trust has been sent thousands of messages of support and some possible leads, after posting news of the theft on its Facebook page.

Richardson claims the theft could have been prevented if the trust had known about break-ins on a derelict neighbouring site awaiting development.

“For the last two months two individuals have been going in and relentlessly stripping out all the cabling and wiring in surrounding buildings. The council were aware of this but hadn’t told us and hadn’t notified the police.

“We probably hold one of the biggest archaeological archives in the county in that store, it would have been relevant for the council to tell us that they were having a massive security problem on the adjacent site. If we’d known we would have taken measures well in advance of anything happening to up our security.”

The council said it has had extensive contact with the trust about several issues at the site including security.

A spokesman said: “We completely refute any suggestion that they were unaware of security concerns in the area. Now we have seen the items that have been taken, we are surprised they did not have much more robust security in place. We’re very supportive of the work they do to investigate and preserve Canterbury’s heritage, but on this occasion we have to strongly disagree with their criticism of us.”

Richardson said there was no CCTV footage of the break-in or the raids on the neighbouring building.

However, a security guard at the site filmed one of the suspects on his mobile phone when he saw him being stopped for shoplifting in the city centre.

“He is certainly a major suspect. The video has been passed to the police,” Richardson said.

The trust has posted images of some of the missing items on its Facebook page as it scrambles to compile a comprehensive list of what was taken. Most of the artefacts were found at a major dig in 2001 in the Whitefriars area of the city, near Canterbury Castle. The dig featured on Channel 4’s archaeology programme Time Team.

Three boxes containing up to 400 coins are among the stolen items.

Richardson said: “You’d need contacts on the antiquities black market to get rid of this stuff. So that gives us hope. Either they will try to sell it and quickly be traced or decide it’s a bit too hot and dump it where it can be found.

“We’d love to catch them, but more important is getting the stuff back. This doesn’t belong to us, it is the product of 40 years of archaeological work in Canterbury and Kent. It is a collective resource.”

Kent police have launched an appeal for information, but it said no suspects had yet been identified.

In a statement, it said: “Officers from Kent police are appealing for information after historical artefacts were stolen by burglars. Among the items taken were a variety of tools, Anglo-Saxon beads, replica metal axes, coins and copper piping.”