Treasure hunter finds 52,000 Roman coins

LONDON - An amateur treasure hunter has found over 52,000 Roman coins, worth at least $1 million, buried in a field in southwestern Britain, the British Museum said Saturday.

Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, found the treasure while searching for metal objects in a field near Frome in Somerset.

Somerset County Council archaeologists were called in to excavate the buried pot, which weighed 160 kg and contained 52,500 coins.

Out of them, 766 coins bear an image of Roman general Marcus Aurelius Carausius, who ruled Britain from A.D. 286 to 293.

The coins, which date from A.D. 253 to 293, are are made of debased silver and bronze and have been transferred to the British Museum in London where they were cleaned and recorded, the CNN reported.

“At the time when I actually found the pot I didn’t know what size it was but when the archaeologists came and started to uncover it, I was gobsmacked, I thought ‘hell, this is massive’,” Crisp said.

“This is the largest ever find in a single pot and the second largest ever in Britain,” said Roger Bland, an official at the British Museum.

Crisp said he would have to split the value of the find with the farmer who owns the field where he discovered the treasure.