EIGHTEEN Iron Age gold coins dug up by a metal detectorist are expected to fetch £25,000 at auction.
History professor Tom Licence, 46, discovered the hoard in a field.
The find in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, is the largest set of gold coins from the reign of King Dubnovellaunos, who ruled the local Celtic Trinovantes tribe from 25 BC to 10 AD.
Tom said: “The reason I went to this new field was because my niece was keen to go metal detecting, so I wanted to find a suitable location to take her.”
“It was when I was there that I noticed that the field rose from a nearby stream in a gentle gradient and had dark silty soil, which was in a perfect condition on a dry October day, so I decided to use my trusty metal detector.
“Later that afternoon, I started to get signals and found two pieces of Viking hack silver.
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“I continued searching and was astounded to find a gold stater and after changing the settings and going up and down rows that I had marked out – I went into hunting mode and found another six staters.
“When it got to sunset, I called the landowner and took the coins to show him and his wife.
“Later that week, I returned to the field and found more coins.
“I was born in Essex but my family has roots in the Bury St Edmunds area, and I like to imagine that the coins were buried by one of my ancestors.”
They will be sold at a London auction next month.
Tom wants to use some of the proceeds to support future archaeological digs in Suffolk.
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