Here's the lucky treasure hunter, 42-year-old John Stevens, describing the find:
Stevens said he was with friends in a ploughed field when he came across the ring about five inches down.
He said: "We have a really good relationship with the local farmer who more or less gives us a free reign on any fields that have no crops growing.
"We had noticed a few days earlier that he was busy ploughing up the field in question, so it at once became our target for the day.
"I stuck at it for a couple of hours and had only a few interesting artefacts for my efforts.
"Then I found an Edward halfpenny and hope returned only to fade again as the day yielded rather less than we had hoped for.
"Some of my friends had switched off their detectors and were walking back to their cars.I was about to join them when I got a really good signal.
"The others grouped round me as I dropped to my knees and dug to a depth of about five inches, then pulled out a clod of damp soil. From the side of it I could see gold.
"One of my friends thought it was a bottle top but as my fingers closed on it I knew it had never wrapped around the top of a bottle.
"Then I heard a chorus of "Lucky sod" and "Jammy beggar". We all realised at once that I was clutching a ring that looked at first glance like medieval gold, with what could be a black diamond.
"It is boldly inscribed with lettering that certainly looks very early medieval to my untrained eye.
"I don't know yet what the letters spell out, but if they indicate a royal owner it might be worth tens of thousand of pounds."
Here's a pic of the ring, it's absolutely gorgeous:
I remember one time as a kid wanting a metal detector. Now I want one again.
No comments:
Post a Comment