Doctor tells of appointment with destiny as he found Civil War treasure in garden

Dr Owen Johnson was inspecting a trench in his garden during building work for a swimming pool when he saw the rim of a ceramic pot about 18 inches down.

As he crouched “there was a tinkling sound like a slot machine” as the coins fell from the pot.

At first he thought they were toy coins but soon recognised the untarnished gold coins as the real thing.

There were 48 gold coins, 543 silver ones and a gold ring inscribed “When this you see remember me.”

Dr Johnson, who works at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield and lives at High Ackworth, near Pontefract, said: “The gold coins looked like they had just come out of a museum cabinet – absolutely perfect.”

They may have been hidden by a wealthy person during the violence of the Civil War.

Their value in the 1640s was over £85, a tidy sum considering a soldier earned about £1 a month.

Yesterday the Ackworth Hoard was declared treasure at an inquest in Wakefield. They will be valued and could be bought by Pontefract Museum, with the proceeds going to the finder.