A metal detectorist has unearthed as many as 15,000 Roman coins in a North Wales field in a discovery experts say could be the largest hoard ever recovered in Wales.
David Moss, 36, of Cheshire, England, and a friend, Ian Nicholson, found the first clay pot just over 20 inches below the surface and then uncovered a second pot nearby after 6.5 hours of careful excavation, museum officials and members of a local numismatic society said.
Moss told the BBC he slept in his car with the coins for three nights because he feared they might be stolen before taking them to the National Museum Cardiff.
“It truly felt like a sign, a rainbow came out, and persistence paid off,” Moss said. He estimated the two pots contain between 10,000 and 15,000 coins. He has been metal detecting for nearly a decade and said he has recovered about 2,700 Roman coins in previous finds.
Anthony Halse says the discovery could be the biggest find of Roman coins in Wales
Anthony Halse, chair of the South Wales and Monmouthshire Numismatic Society, said the haul “could be the biggest” Roman discovery in Wales. Halse suggested the coins might have belonged to a Roman soldier or soldiers who buried wealth for safekeeping. He said museum staff in Cardiff will date the hoard and “apply to the British Museum to see if they can keep them” because of the find’s size.
Museum officials said the precise site of the discovery will not be disclosed. Moss described the area as “virtually untouched,” an open landscape that he said has artifacts spanning the times of druids and Vikings through to the Romans.
The find sets in motion a formal process under Britain’s Treasure Act 1996. In Wales, finders must report potential treasure to a Finds Liaison Officer within 14 days. Officials will assess the coins and, if a museum wants to acquire the hoard, the Treasure Valuation Committee will arrange an independent valuation. If a museum purchases the find, a reward based on that valuation is typically split between the finder and the landowner.
An assessment of the hoard of coins will be completed next year
A museum spokesperson said the assessment of the hoard should be completed next year. Curators will clean, catalogue, and study the coins to identify emperors, mint marks, and other features that help date and explain how and why the hoard was buried.
Large Roman hoards have been found before in Britain. The BBC noted that more than 50,000 Roman coins were discovered in Somerset in 2010 and that Wales has seen significant finds previously, including nearly 6,000 coins recovered at Sully in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2008 and a hoard of about 10,000 coins near Chepstow in the 1990s.
The case also highlights the rules and risks for detectorists. The BBC cited a cautionary example of a man who concealed a Viking coin find and later faced jail time after trying to sell the treasure, underscoring legal penalties for failing to report discoveries or acting in bad faith. For now, the clay pots and their contents are in the care of National Museum Cardiff staff as conservators begin the long task of stabilizing and studying the coins that have lain buried for nearly 2 millennia.