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Treasure Stories

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White's have been making wonderful finds throughout the world since their introduction into the ever popular hobby of metal detecting.

We're always delighted to receive stories and photographs from White's users. Please contact us by email and lets share your experiences whilst detecting with many other interested readers.

Celtic Gold Stater found with XLT

Rare Silver Ring Found

The Middleham Jewel

The Hoxne Treasure

The Reigate Hoard

More results at bottom

Celtic Gold Stater found with XLT

Submitted By:

Mr Gregory (GB)

Keywords:

GOLD COIN

The Celtic gold stater pictured above had been found with a White’s Spectrum XLT by Mr Gregory of Nottinghamshire. Mr Gregory wrote, "Many thanks to all at White’s who have contributed to the wonderful Spectrum XLT. I hope it proves to be as reliable as its performance. It’s brilliant!

I found the stater earlier this month with the XLT. It’s been recorded by the local museum curator, who is most helpful. The machine had its first outing at the Bridlington Rally and was custom programmed by a young man I met at Bridlington, John Muir.

The pleasure I get from the excellent relationship with the local farmers makes detecting a wonderful, relaxing hobby, if not a little tiring.

The XLT is wonderfully balanced hence the reason why my legs ache after six hours detecting but never my arms. I thank White's for helping me find this lovely, ancient coin."

Rare Silver Ring Found

Submitted By:

Andrew Southwell (GB)

Keywords:

RARE JEWELRY RELIC

White's user Andrew Southwell has discovered a rare silver ring dating as far back as the 12th century using his XLT.

Andrew from Staffordshire found the rare silver and jasper ring whilst detecting some farm fields in his native Staffordshire. The ring is engraved with the words 'Secreti Sigllum' - meaning 'secret seal' - and is inset with a third century jasper stone, with a carving of the Roman god Jupiter.

It would have been used as a wax seal. It is currently in the hands of experts at the British Museum in London and could be worth many thousands of pounds.

"It is a stunning find", says Andy, It has probably been lying in the ground for 900 years. It is a very exciting find".
Sealed inside the ring jewellery repairers also discovered a small piece of cloth, said to be a holy relic, and which once could have belonged to a saint's robe.
"I had not been metal detecting for about a month," Andy said. "It was the first field I went onto. I turned the XLT on, walked about eight feet and got a decent signal".
"The ring was buried about eight inches down. It had been damaged, and I did not realise how rare it was."
"I have been doing the fields for two years now, and the ring is probably worth five times more than everything else I have ever found".

The Middleham Jewel

Submitted By:

Ted Seaton (GB)

Keywords:

JEWELRY RELIC

Ted Seaton and two friends had been detecting near Middleham Castle, England on a cold, wet day. As the three detectorists made their way back to the car with bags full of nothing more interesting than iron scrap, two of them weren't even switched on. Ted continued a pessimistic search so much so that he was tempted to ignore a faint signal at the edge of the bridleway. From 15" down he unearthed what appeared to be an old compact which joined the other rubbish in his bag.

It was only when he got home and washed the find that Ted realised what he had found. It was a gold pendant weighing 68 gm together with its blue sapphire stone which measures 12 mm x 10 mm and is 10 ct plus. A Trinity scene engraved on one surface of the diamond-shaped pendant has a border of highly-burnished gold surrounding a raised panel which gives a cameo effect and highlights the engraving.
The border carries a Latin inscription in Gothic style which identifies the pendant as a charm against falling sickness (epilepsy). Overall size of the amulet was 65 mm high, 59 mm wide and 10 mm deep.

In record-breaking time the discovery was adjudged not to be Treasure Trove. The amulet belongs to the period of Richard III and is almost certainly a reliquary containing perhaps a fragment of wood reputed to come from The Cross, or some other relic associated with Christ. This wonderful find was later sold at auction where it realised the incredible sum of 1.3 million. It has since changed hands for the sum of 2.5 million..

The Hoxne Treasure

Submitted By:

Eric Lawes (GB)

Keywords:

COIN GOLD SILVER JEWELRY

On Monday 16th November 1992, Eric Lawes, a retired professional gardener, decided to go detecting. He moved to a part not searched, of a field on which he'd previously had no luck. Just short of three hours later a clear, non-ferrous signal welcomed him into a life of luxury. At four inches depth, a silver Roman coin appeared. Advancing the searchhead a further eight inches and digging to the same depth produced a similar coin.
Two sweeps, approximately eight inches onward, a very strong non-ferrous signal, continuing as he excavated, brought him to twelve inches down and the biggest surprise of his life.
Contained within the handful of earth he drew out of the hole were a number of Roman gold coins. Placing these to one side his second view of the excavation revealed a solid layer of gold coins. He scooped out a mixture of earth and gold coins by the handful.

Then the mixture changed to earth, gold coins and silver coins; followed by small gold bracelets, silver spoons, a long gold chain and pendant with semi-precious stones. Peering into the hole, he could see a mass of silver spoons. Eric realised that he had hit upon a very important treasure and took the appropriate action.

Eric called in the Suffolk Archaeological Unit, the landowners and the local police. Careful excavation resulted in the discovery of further precious metal objects of great archaeological significance, including; precious metal figurines, a silver lioness, bust of a human, decorated strainers, silver spoons with animal head terminals, gold bracelets, heavy jewelled chains, a gold necklace and, in total, over 14,000 gold and silver coins!

Eric was subsequently praised for the manner in which he had handled the finding of one of the greatest treasures ever found in Britain. He later received 1.75 million as a reward.

The Reigate Hoard

Submitted By:

Roger Mintey (GB)

Keywords:

COIN CACHE

In 1985 Roger Mintey took up metal detecting and living in Reigate already knew of a hoard of 987 medieval coins which had been discovered there in 1972. For five years Roger carried on his hobby finding the usual everyday items such as musket balls, buttons, rings and various other items.

On Saturday 22nd September 1990 Roger had two hours to kill before it went dark and so decided to go to a nearby field. A medieval trackway ran about 50 yards away and as the field was shortly to be developed, Roger felt it was worth 'one last go'. Almost as soon as he started detecting Roger picked up a massive signal but thought his detector had gone out of tune. He retuned the machine and moved on.

After an hour or so he'd found nowt but junk and found himself over the massive signal again. This time he decided to dig the signal, it was going dark and he didn't have time for more detecting anyway. Six inches down he encountered hard cracked clay and carefully removed two blocks. He removed more earth and bits of pottery then found two medieval groats. Pulling away at the pottery in the hole revealed masses of coins stacked vertically in concentric circles at the bottom of the hole. It was a medieval coin hoard.

By 10.45 pm that night Roger had a heavy bucketful of medieval coins, silver and gold, containing about 2500 coins!

Roger and the local archaeologist spent all the next day digging and checking the hole. In all they retrieved 6,705 coins, 138 gold and the rest silver. The hoard dated from 1272 to 1455 (as did the 1972 hoard) and contained gold nobles, half-nobles and quarters and silver groats, half-groats and pennies. It is the largest post-1351 UK hoard on record. One coin, a Henry 6th Leaf Trefoil half-noble, was previously unrecorded. Also in the hoard were 11 French gold saluts, 21 Scottish silver coins and 6 other non-English issues.

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