Yesterday I attended an inquest at Huntingdon where a Gold ingot I found with my XLT was declared treasure. Unfortunately, as I only had it in my possession for 16hrs, I only have a black and white photo supplied by the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. To keep you in suspense, I will tell you how I came to find it before telling you what size and how old. Suffice to say it is a rare discovery the like of which has not appeared in T'hunting to my knowledge.

On the evening of the 31 Aug 99, I decided to go out detecting for a couple of hours as I was looking forward to taking a "sceat" in to be recorded at the Fitzwilliam the next morning and was in the right frame of mind. I had gained permission for a 600+ acre local farm 2 miles away and had been giving each field a quick search to see what they held. That evening, an 80 acre field of wheat stubble was being roughed up as I arrived leaving it in an easy state to detect.
I walked across one field I had already given the once over setting up my detector as I walked. On reaching the entrance to the much larger field I started detecting from the gateway and walked a short distance before getting my first signal, a strong one at 50. I levered out a 4 inch trowel full and immediately saw what looked like a brass coloured chocolate finger about 2 inches long. Picking it up made me realise that it was probably gold as it weighed like lead. One side was rounded with a gritty impression all over whilst the top was flat and smooth with a slight depression along its length.

It also seemed to taper slightly along its length. I spent the next hour going round in circles trying to find more but with no success within a 20M radius. Thus I went home, taking it out every now and then to see if I had missed a detail. I thought it must be 'old' as it was so crude ....13thC ?
Showing it to my wife brought the response "it�s brass" but after feeling its weight she seemed more convinced. I had gone to the farmhouse prior to going home but the farmer wasn�t in. His wife took a passing interest but I don�t think she was impressed. I later phoned the farmer offering to take it round but I think he was too tired and was happy for me to take it to the museum.
The next morning at the museum, I was escorted to the keeper of the coins offices by an assistant. He was quite chatty about my sceat find till I said that I had something else for them to look at and dropped the ingot in his palm. His focus of attention shifted and a look of glee spread across his face as he stared into my palm. I thought, �This looks promising�. We entered a large square gloomy office with bookcases on each wall about 12 ft high. He immediately went into a huddle with someone at a desk, his palm between them.

After a few minutes, a female assistant was drawn to look at the object whilst I was left to stand and observe. Eventually I was asked the circumstances of the find which I explained. The room seemed to now have possibly six people in it, all with a look of awe/excitement. I was definitely beginning to think I had found something special , as the crude shape had tended to make me think it was just an oddity.
The keeper of the coins Dr Mark Blackburn recognised my find from the outset as a Viking gold ingot.
This was later confirmed by the British Museum. It would appear to be similar to a smaller one found in Norwich which was worked (by hammer) on two sides. Two more ingots or similar gold artefacts (this was not clear) are known from the Scottish islands(?). Thus the inquest found my ingot to be treasure and I was informed that a value will be determined by an independent committee in possibly three months. Something which I had not heard previously was that the museum would be given three months to raise the funds.
So, after two years detecting with my XLT on somewhat meagre sites, compared to the sites described in magazines, I have made up for it with an unusual gold find. I have a cartoon of my idea of how the loss occurred, prepared by a friend at work, Paul Hauk.
I am giving the original to the farmer as I worry that this has all been an inconvenience to him and hopefully he will look upon my continuing to detect favourably.