Treasure hunters strike gold with huge coins hoard

The 15 members of the West Riding Detector Group found the 178 silver Henry I coins scattered across a remote patch of farmland near Knaresborough.

It is the largest hoard of the coins, which date from between 1100 and 1135, ever found in the north of England and the only hoard that contains just that type of penny.

Yesterday North Yorkshire County Coroner Robert Turnbull declared the coins official treasure and the group looks set to sell them to the British Museum or Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.

Spokesman Peter Spencer said they had almost cancelled the trip the day they found the treasure and he only agreed to go after he was persuaded by another member.

He said: "It was incredibly exciting and to find something like this is just a detector's dream.

"We weren't even supposed to have an outing that day and it was organised at the last minute.

"But we're all pretty pleased we went.

"Usually when you are detecting you find bits of old cartridge case or worthless metal but that day every time you heard a bleep it was another coin."

Bradford delivery driver Julian Szulc, 49, who was part of the team, said: "It was like winning the Lottery.

"I have been detecting for 10 years and this is something you can only dream about.

"I think we might get about 40,000 for them, which is a brilliant amount, but it is about more than the money for us.

"This is a find of real historical significance."

Following the coroner's announcement yesterday the coins will be sent to valuation experts to determine how much they are worth.

The proceeds will be split between the group and the landowner whose field the hoard was discovered on.

The curator of early medieval coinage at the British Museum, Gareth William, said in a statement read out to the court, yesterday: "Coins of Henry I's reign are rare at the best of times and the fact that all these coins are of a type is even rarer.

"They are probably part of a hoard from towards the end of the reign of Henry I."

The detector group, which has 45 members, holds expeditions across the North.