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Scotland

    Where
Is It Now?
    National Museums Scotland

Wickham Market Hoard
    Not every amazing treasure find happens when a first
timer fires up their metal detector. Some people metal detect for
years before they make that huge life altering find. This is the case
with Michael Dark and the Wickham Market Hoard.

    Michael is no newcomer to the world of metal detecting.
In fact, it took him 25 years of searching to locate his first gold
coin. He knew there had to be more gold coins buried in the ground
nearby.

    Determined to find more of the coins, Michael returned
to the spot where he recovered the first. The hunting conditions were
horrible, but gold fever had already taken hold of Michael.

    It was cold, windy and sleet was pelting him. Like any
metal detecting enthusiast who is on the hunt, Michael ignored the
weather conditions and continued his search. As luck would have it,
his search produced eight more gold coins. These eight additional
gold coins were not enough. The gold had made its way into Michael's
heart. One look in his eyes and it was easy to see Michael had
developed a mild case of gold fever.

    Michael's metal detector suddenly went nuts. From the
sound of it, there was something really big buried right beneath his
feet. Could it be even more of the gold coins? His mild case of gold
fever was now escalated to the point of no return. He knew he was
standing on a huge pile of gold coins. Here is where the story takes
an odd turn.

    Instead of recovering his find, Michael decided he would
have to leave it over night. That's right. Michael decided that it
was in his best interest to return and uncover his find after a good
night's rest. He used rocks to mark the location on the ground and
went home, cleaned up and went to sleep. Wait a minute? WHAT?????

    I don't know about you, but there is simply no way I
could have done this, but to each their own I suppose.

    When he returned, he uncovered another 774 gold coins
bringing the total amount of gold coins to 840! And just think,
Michael let those additional 774 gold coins lay in the ground one
more night. What harm could come from letting them stay buried for
one more night?

    Image
courtesy of Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England

    What Was It
Worth?
    £316,000 or $525,413

    When
Was the Hoard Discovered?
    March 2008

    Where
Was the Hoard Discovered?
    Dallinghoo near Wickham Market, Suffolk, England

    Where
Is It Now?
    Ipswich Museum

The Bredon Hill Hoard
    Jethro Carpenter and Mark Gilmour are no strangers to
metal detecting and this is no case of beginner's luck either. The
two treasure hunters were hunting an area of private farm land where
they made some interesting finds in the past. The farm land would
prove fruitful yet again when their machine gave them a good strong
signal.

    Excited to locate their newly found piece of treasure,
the two treasure hunters started to unearth their find. Wouldn't you
know it. There was no real treasure waiting for them in that hole
they just excavated. The piece of treasure was nothing more than a
old rusty nail.

    In my book entitled: “ Metal
Detecting: A Beginner's Guide to Mastering the Greatest Hobby In the
World ,” I talk about the importance of always scanning your
holes twice. This story drives this fact straight home.

    After removing the nail, Jethro and Mark scanned the
hole again. There were still more targets in the hole. As they kept
digging, they started noticing pottery shards. It wasn't long until
they started finding coins, lots of coins. They knew they had just
found a huge hoard and thought it would be best to report it to the
authorities.

    The coins in this particular hoard are very interesting
because each coin is made from a very small amount of silver. It is
estimated that most of the coins are only about 1% silver. This was
done intentionally to devalue the coins when they were created.

    What
Was Found ?
    3784 silver Roman coins

    Image courtesy of portableantiquities

    Image