Wesley Carrington, UK Man, Finds $156,000 In Roman Gold Coins On First Time Using Metal Detector

[jakeXT]

Some people spend a lifetime trying to amass a fortune through hard work and guile. For one British man, it took only 20 minutes in a field with a metal detector -- the first 20 minutes he had ever used such a machine.

According to the St. Albans & Harpenden Review, Wesley Carrington took his newly bought metal detector out into a field near St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England, last October. After finding a spoon and then a half penny, Carrington's machine beeped a third time, and he dug seven inches down to uncover a coin that was gold in color with a Roman figure on it.

As it turns out, the gold coloring was actually gold, the coin was an ancient Roman solidus, and there were 158 more buried with it, a hoard with an estimated worth of 100,000 pounds sterling, or $156,000, according to The Daily Mail.

Carrington found 55 of the coins that first night, stopping only because it got too dark outside to continue. A group of experts later returned to discover 104 more coins at the site. All in all, the hoard is believed to be one of the largest collections of Roman gold coins ever found in England, according to the BBC. St. Albans District Councillor Mike Wakely hailed it as "an exciting find of national significance," the outlet reports.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/wesley-carrington-finds-roman-gold-coins_n_3404112.html

[Ian David]

1. He spent all of it buying forty high-end metal detectors for his friends and family. n/t

[TlalocW]

2. I kind of feel sorry for him

No metal detector experience will ever equal his first one now...

TlalocW

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Ain't that the truth. n/t

[WinkyDink]

9. He's in England. One never knows!

[hedgehog]

3. I wonder how whoever buried the coins got hold of them in the

first place, and why they never returned to retrieve them.

[RC]

4. I've been DU too much

I read that as "UK Man Fined $156,000 In Roman Gold Coins On First Time Using Metal Detector."

Huh, what? Really? Fined Roman gold coins, not pounds?

[jakeXT]

5. Or your monitor is too small. /nt

[RC]

7. 24 inch, less than 3 feet away.

[dipsydoodle]

8. St Albans / Verulamium is just up the road to me.

Was a Roman town on the Roman road from the coast at Dover to Wales, which the Anglo Saxons named Watling Street - now the A5 in St Albans, and there's doubtless plenty more to find there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verulamium

[sufrommich]

10. Moral of the story: If you're going to bury

your stash,you should be able to remember where you buried it.

[jakeXT]

11. Maybe he took it to the grave /nt

[roamer65]

12. Fairly common along old roman roads/pathways to find coins...

...from Roman times I am told. Usually it's the copper coins and silver denarii, though. Finding gold aureus or solidus coins is certainly a rare and good find indeed.