Treasure hunters found a pile of ancient coins worth half a million pounds sterling in a field

Three metal detectorists got lucky when they unearthed a hoard of silver coins from one of the most famous years in English history. All 181p coins were minted in 1066 and featured the effigy of King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon monarch, who was killed at the Battle of Hastings by an arrow to the eye.

And an astonishing discovery in a grass field near York could ultimately bring the finders and landowner half a million pounds, writes the Daily Mail.

Having hidden the coins in a lead pot, the wealthy owner may well have been killed either at the Battle of Fulford or at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York in the same year. However, the cache remained undiscovered for centuries until it was discovered by 56-year-old metal detecting enthusiast Paul Ibbotson.

Ibbotson was searching for the treasure with friends Harold Gaskell and William Hargreaves when he made the discovery of a lifetime earlier this year.

He said: “I got permission from the landowner to search the field, it was nothing major. Most of the time I discover on my own, but I brought two guys along.”

The group had planned to head to the second field after lunch and Paul Ibbotson says his friends had already returned to the car when he suddenly “got the signal”.

“As soon as I found it I realized it was an Anglo-Saxon coin, I was shaking because I knew it was a valuable find for a retrieval specialist. Within a second or two I received another signal, then another, and then another. I I think I found about four or five by the time I called William and Harold. I told them, “I think I’ve found something big, I’ve found treasure.”

The three men then began digging, and dozens more King Harold coins from 1066 emerged from the soil.

According to Ibbotson, there were fragments of a lead pot in which the coins were apparently stored and had been broken by a farmer’s plow.

Treasure hunters spent the next three days searching the area to make sure all the coins were found.

Ibbotson said about half were complete and in good condition, while the other half were damaged.

Finding the treasure was “one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had,” he admits.

All coins were minted in 1066, when Harold reigned from January until his death on 14 October. All of them depict a king on one side and the word “pax” on the other, which means “peace” in Latin.

Harold Godwinson became king after his brother-in-law Edward the Confessor died without an heir. This reign turned out to be short and turbulent, the Daily Mail recalls. Two September battles near York – Fulford and Stamford Bridge – ended with Harold’s victory over the invading forces of his brother Tostig and the King of Norway, who were both killed.

Three weeks later, King Harold himself was killed at Hastings in Sussex as William the Conqueror’s invading forces achieved a decisive victory that would change the course of English history.

Nigel Mills, a coin specialist at London auction house Noonans, said the value of the hoard would depend on where they were minted and the condition, which appears to be good in photographs.

A solid silver King Harold penny in good condition “on average” fetched around £6,000 at auction. With around half the hoard said to be complete coins, the total value could be as high as £500,000.

According to Mills, the owner of the treasure had to be “someone important, but not necessarily super-rich.” The expert also supported the theory that the owner may have died in one of the battles. “The thing about these finds is that they were kept until a certain event and for some reason the owner never came back for them,” he said.

Mills added that the coins will inevitably be declared “treasures”, but it could take up to two years for the value to be established.

Ultimately, Paul Ibbotson, a railway signaling technician, will likely split the six-figure sum with the landowner. He said he “made a deal” with friends who helped him dig them up.

Ibbotson lives in the Lancaster area, but this is the second significant discovery he has made in the fields near York. A 15th-century gemstone ring valued at £20,000 was discovered in 2016 and may have belonged to Henry V111’s two wives. His romantic theory was that the ring was lost when Catherine Howard threw it to the ground to show her love for her notorious lover Thomas Culpeper rather than the king.

Coins 1066 have been handed over to the York Coroner and are now being assessed in accordance with the legal protocol for finds of historical treasures. The British Museum confirmed that “the treasure of early medieval coins has been reported to a coroner under the Treasures Act 1996.”