Beginner Detectorist Finds Gold Roman Coins Worth £100,000
Who believes in beginners luck? This guy most definitely does! This beginner detectorist finds gold Roman coins 20 minutes after he bought a metal detector!
Wesley Carrington a 34 year old car salesman set out on his day to purchase a metal detector, he went down to the local shop and bought the cheapest metal beginners metal detector the Garrett Ace 150. He went straight to the local woods to test his new toy out.
Straight away he found a spoon and a half penny, but then the machine started making a loud tone sound to let him know there was some metal way beneath the ground.
He dug down around seven inches, and it was there that he found his first “solidi” gold coin, which dated back more than 1600 years. He continued to dig and found a further 54!
Solidi gold coins are 22 carat gold, struck in Milan (capital of the Western Empire from 286 A.D. to 402 A.D) and Ravenna (capital of the Western Empire from 402 A.D. until the fall in 476 A.D.) in the late 4th century.
He joked with reporters that he may have “peaked early” in his metal detecting career.
Experts later returned to the site where he found the 55 gold coins, where they discovered another 104! They described the hoard of coins as nothing more than “spectacular” and explained it was a find of “national significance” The experts exclaimed they was truly stunned.
Later there was an official inquest which was held to determine as to whether the hoard were classed as treasure trove
Coroner Edward Thomas from Hertfordshire made the decision that they were to be classed as treasure trove and the “solidi” gold coins were to be sent to the British Museum for a professional valuation to be made, before they go up for auction.
Wesley Carrington would have to split any proceeds with the landowner where the amazing discovery was made. He revealed he learnt his metal detecting techniques through YouTube.com.
He told the inquest that was held in Hatfield “I’ve never been metal detecting before. I just decided to give it a go”
He stated he bought the least expensive metal detector he could find and then headed to the local woodland that was located near St Albans, Hertfordshire.
He said “About 20 minutes into metal detecting, the machine beeped so I dug a hole”
“I dug up a bit of the ground and started to break it up, a technique I had seen on YouTube, I saw a coin that was gold in colour, with a Roman Portrait on it. I knew instantly what it was but I did not realize just how significant it was.
He then found two of the gold coins together, and continued to search finding a total of 55.
“When they all started to come out of the ground, everything sort of merged into a blur” he said
‘Wesley discovered a hoard of sold gold Solidi that dated back nearly 1700 years to the fall of the Roman Empire.
In a true beginners luck story Mr Carrington has said he has joined a metal detecting club since and has been out with his detector again but not found anything!
So the moral of the story here? It does happen, It can happen, and it could happen to you. You have just as much chance as anyone right? We all can dream. I’m personally happy if I find a coin older than 20 years! Keep chasing that dream detectorist’s you just never know.
