Treasure hunter discovers a rare hoard

[gash]

An amateur historian using a metal detector in a farmer's field has told how he found a once-in-a -lifetime hoard of 2,000-year-old silver Roman coins - worth up to £200,000 ($267,000).
Some of the metal disks were minted during the era Roman general Mark Antony was allied with his lover Cleopatra in Egypt and experts said a find of this size and variety is very rare.
A single coin can sell for up to £900 ($12,000) so fisherman Mike Smale, 35, was astonished when he uncovered one pristine coin after another dating back to 32BC.
The coins will be handed over to the coroner for valuation and then likely sold to a museum, with the profits split between the farmer and Mr Smale.

Mr Smale, 35, found the hoard of 600 rare ancient coins in a farmer's field in Bridport while hunting with friends from the Southern Detectorists club.
Father-of-one Mr Smale, a fisherman from Plymouth, Devon, said: 'It was incredible, a true once-in-a-lifetime find.
'I had a good idea about what it was - I had already found one or two Roman denarii that morning.
'It's a great find, my biggest one, but I shan't be giving it up. It's great fun and I'm sticking with it', he said.
The astonishing find was made at an undisclosed farmland location in Bridport at the detectorists annual event, attended by 300 people.
'When I found it everyone came over to have a look and find out what it was', said Mr Smale.
'It's impossible to say what it's worth, it all depends on too many factors.. How rare they are, what condition they are in, things like that.
'But it is a substantial find, and whatever I do get I'm going to split with the guys I went up there with.'

WHAT ARE THE COINS?
An expert who has examined photos of the coins said some feature Gods, and were issued by the Roman Republic in the centuries before the birth of Christ.
Some of the metal disks were minted during the era Roman general Mark Antony was allied with his lover Cleopatra in Egypt and experts said a find of this size and variety is very rare.
They would have circulated widely in the Roman Empire and travelled a long way. 
Republican coins and those of Antony were issued before the Roman Invasion of Britain in AD 43, and would have drifted over in the pockets of Roman soldiers and citizens alike, according to an expert.
Other coins were issued by emperors who ruled during the first century AD.
One of the coins celebrated the ill-fated emperor Otho, who only ruled for three months in (January to April AD 69), during the civil wars which followed the assassination of the notorious emperor Nero.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4932822/Treasure-hunter-discovers-rare-2-000-year-old-Roman-coins.html#ixzz4u6INBzOU