An amateur treasure hunter who was inspired by the popular BBC metal-detecting series Detectorists recently unearthed a stunning cache of 16th-century and 17th-century silver coins worth nearly $100,000, per the BBC. The popular BBC dramedy, which ran from 2014 until 2022, starred Mackenzie Cook and Toby Jones as amateur metal detectorists in the English countryside.
A “Ridiculous Story”
Back in March 2023, 60-year-old Steve Hickman was searching a patch of farmland when he came across the extraordinary hoard. “It’s a ridiculous story,” Hickman laughed. “I was detecting in a field with power cables above when I got this really puzzling signal. I looked up, thinking it was going to be those cables, but decided to dig because when you’re starting out, you need to try everything to learn the good from the bad.”
Hickman dug about nine feet, but when the signal didn’t intensify, he decided to move on. Later in the day, he reconsidered the discovery and went back to his “pinpointer depth” excavation. “Water was coming through the hole and I saw these grey slots poking out through the water,” he said. “Then I saw the edges of an orange pot—I sat back and felt disbelief.”
The Cache Is Worth a Fortune
After excavating the haul, Hickman found that it contained 1,064 silver coins, which were ultimately dated back to the era of Queen Elizabeth I. The cache included 409 silver shillings, several rare coins which were minted in Oxford, and a few remarkably elusive coins from Wales’ Aberystwyth mint. Experts believe they were minted in the fall of 1642, during the start of the English Civil War, prior to the Battles of Aylesbury, which occurred just a few miles from where the hoard was recovered. All told, the hoard was worth over $85,000 (£63,000).
After the remarkable discovery, Hickman turned the hoard over to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which catalogued the findings and inevitably auctioned the haul off for a princely sum. Hickman already has plans to return to the grounds where he made the fortuitous discovery with hopes of repeating his good luck. “I’d got written permission from the landowner, and everything over a £100 ($74) value gets split 50/50,” he said.
