Cache of Roman gold coins discovered in Britain

CAIRO – 14 July 2022: A cache of gold coins found buried in farmland in the United Kingdom has attracted the attention of coin hunters who linked the trove to the Roman Empire.

So far, metal detectorists have discovered 11 coins in a remote area of cultivated fields in Norfolk, a rural county near the east coast of England. Experts still hope to find out more in the future.

Damon and Dennis Bay, two local metal detectorists, found the first of several gold coins in 2017, after local farmers finished plowing the soil at the end of the harvest.

“The coins were found scattered in the plowing soil, which was turned over year after year and eventually came to the surface. In the first year, we found four coins, and in the next year we found another one. Then the ancient coin hunters found a few more the next year and I think there was more," said Adrian Marsden, a money expert with Norfolk County Council, according to Live Science.

“Sometime between the first century BC and the first century AD all coins were minted before the Roman invasion when Roman forces occupied Britain starting in AD 43 after an invasion by the fourth emperor of Rome, Claudius,” resumed Marsden.

According to Marsden, the coins were apparently buried underground prior to the Roman conquest and it is likely that they were part of offerings to ancient deities, but most likely someone buried them with the intention of recovering them later, as gold was often used as a trade.

“It is possible that a local tribe planned to use it for other things like melting it down to make jewelry," concluded Marsden.