Unexpected Roman Treasure Leaves Historian in Awe Great British History Hunters

This time on Great British History Hunters, a Bristolian detecting duo. I think we might have another complete pot. Very, very excited. Make the find of a lifetime and tribes of amateur archaeologists. That ended up in my trash. Pieced together the past. That could be King Arthur's bread knife. Gotta have a good imagination when you're a metal detector. The last year has seen a huge rise in the number of people taking up metal detecting. And for those lucky enough to discover archaeology, they're adding to the whopping one and a half million finds recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme since 1997. Many spend weekends out in the glorious countryside with fellow enthusiasts on club digs. Let's go. Let's do it. 11-year-old Patrick Hooper is the youngest member of his local Hampshire detecting club, the Soil Searchers. Who's going to be the first to find the first signals? Probably you. Probably. As is usual, Dad Andy's in tow. And today, the group have permission from the landowner to detect on a field near Andover. Wow, look at, yeah, that's... Oh wow, this one's a Georgia first. Is that a Georgia first? Yeah, yeah, half penny. Wow, nice. Paddy's young brain is a sponge for historical facts, doing Dad Andy proud. To have my child so absorbed in a hobby, it's great. He's not in front of a screen, he's finding interesting things, he's out in the fresh air. Yeah, let me flick it out. Oh, that could be a coin. Go on then. Please, first hole, come on. There's no way. What is it? Go on. It's a full crotal bell. First hole. From the Middle Ages, crotal bells were fastened to animals to keep track of livestock and warn of approaching horse-drawn vehicles. So how old do you think that is, Paddy? Oh, I can't remember. It's to do with this little, you know, the top bit, but I reckon 1800s. Back home in Fleet, Paddy shares his passion with the world. On his own Paddy Detects YouTube channel. Hey everyone, I'm out digging, of course I am. Check that out, look how big that musty bull is. I love metal detecting because you can find something, like a Roman coin. The last person that touched that was about 1700 years ago. So were they an emperor, were they just a peasant, a farmer? What were they doing? How did they lose that coin? Because that coin might have been a really quite expensive one. Though his detecting career has been short, Patrick's developed something of a Midas touch. And in 2020, he became one of the youngest ever finders of treasure. This, everybody, may not seem like much, but we think that is Bronze Age gold. That is mental. I just couldn't believe I found something that old and it's gold. It's so rare, it's truly incredible. As an object suspected to be made of precious metal and more than three centuries old, Paddy did his legal duty under the Treasure Act and reported the ribbon to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. It's currently being analysed at the British Museum to discover if it does indeed date back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. If confirmed as treasure and a museum wishes to acquire it, Patrick could receive a finder's reward. My goal isn't to get rich. I just want to be able to show people what I've discovered. To get it in the museum would be awesome. So I can have, you know, a little case with my name on that I've found that and rescued that piece of history. After the Roman conquest of Britain in the first century, the West Country became a hub for industry and agriculture. Grand cities like Bath and Gloucester sprung out of the enormous wealth generated in the region. Fast forward two millennia and best buddies Mark Wilcox and Mark Lovell now search the fields of Gloucestershire for remnants of Roman life left in the turf. I've done all sorts of different things. Jack of all trades, master of none, they would probably say. Since they met as neighbours 30 years ago, it's only their nine-to-fives that keep them from their mission. I've been fencing for 12 years. It's quite an enjoyable job because you see an end result. Finding that big hoard of gold, it's a nice dream, but you've got to stay attached with reality because, you know, it may not happen. But the Marks know you've got to dig a lot of holes before you strike gold. That's what I was looking for. Right, well Romans had those sort of things though, didn't they? When they carried their orders, did they really? But it probably is a tent peg. Keep going. It's a silver shilling. It's the bottom of a battery. It's actually a George III, 1760 something. George III, you can tell he's looking to the right. In a tradition first established by Charles II, the direction in which a head faces on a coin alternates between successive monarchs. Yeah, fair play. You did say it was silver, didn't you? I said it was silver and I was bang on the money. Yeah. Recently, Mark and Mark have stepped up their search for evidence of Roman activity, but wives Jane and Glenda are sceptical of their chances. Oh, the wanderers return. Show us your treasure. I found a lovely silver shilling. Yeah, so I found a couple of big tent pegs. So was that it then? Yeah. Yeah, but we were actually surveying the land for a future visit. So is it a field worth going back to? Yeah, definitely. Is that based on two tent pegs and a silver shilling? Yeah, silver shilling's lucky. You wait, there'll be more than that there. I promise you. Today, Fines Liaison Officer Joe Armett is holding a surgery at Nebworth in Hertfordshire. A host of amateur archaeologists from the southeast and beyond are bringing their treasured finds for him to examine. I am really looking forward to this. I've got people that have been doing it for 30, 40 years, and I've got people that are just starting out. And for me, it's just fantastic that I can work with these people as part of my job to preserve the country's history. Potential treasure must be reported to a local Fines Liaison Officer who logs them and advises what happens next. 11-year-old Patrick is no stranger to the system. How long did it take you to find a piece of treasure, Paddy? Not long, about a year, maybe a bit less. How long did it take you? It took me 39 years. Whilst Patrick's gold ribbon is under investigation at the British Museum, he's keen to find out more about his newest find. What have you got for me today? So, I have a crossbow. It still rings. Yeah, cleaned up full. Some of them have maker's marks on. Yeah. Well, actually, does this one do? It's got a letter T on the bottom. Yeah, there's a letter T just there. So, who would that be then? It's difficult because I think there's only one letter on there and there's a lot of bell makers that might be called Thomas or something along those things. These objects were really nice to bring in. I believe you've already got a bit of treasure in the system currently, lovely little bit of gold. So, that ended up in my trash. Paddy cast aside this bit of treasure without a second glance, thinking it was a bit of foil. Luckily, a glimmer caught Dad Andy's eye. And it was only when I was cleaning out his bag, I had a little look and thought, oh, that looks interesting. Oh, it's a bright gold thing. I know archaeologists that have done it. I know metal detectorists that have done it. You're not the first and you'll definitely not be the last. OK, I feel a bit better now. I have heard from the British Museum. Really? The science team have done some really interesting examination of the gold. I think the treasure team would be delighted to have you along to see what they've discovered. Oh, that would be cool. Thanks. Can't wait. Thank you so much. British Museum scientists have been trying to establish whether Patrick's ribbon gold dates back to the Bronze Age and also whether it officially qualifies as treasure. For Paddy to receive a finder's reward, it must be more than 10% gold. I can't believe that I'm allowed to go up to the British Museum to check out my gold. I really want to find out where that gold was from, the exact age. It's just going to be so good. Today, on the outskirts of Bristol, finds liaison officers Kurt Adams and Lucy Shipley are holding a surgery to see what historical treasures have been newly unearthed in the West Country. Lucy's hoping to assess items from a period she rarely sees on her patch further south in Devon. In Devon, during the Roman period, it's sort of perceived as being a backwater of Gloucestershire. It's much more desirable as an address for your Romans. Our two Bristolian detectives, Mark and Mark, have brought a number of objects recovered from a single field and they're desperate to get a date on them. Wow. That's quite a lot of stuff there. That's quite significant. Straight away, drawn to this little beauty, the stunning boar. That is absolutely beautiful. Fantastic crest running down the back of the beast. It looks like there would have been settings for stones for the irons. Look at that. Oh, it's so gorgeous, isn't it? Wild boar figurines cast from bronze were popular as far back as the Iron Age, leading Kurt and Lucy to suspect this one could be as much as 2,000 years old. Boars have all sorts of interesting symbolism in the Iron Age and sort of early Roman period, don't they? Yeah. This kind of idea about heightened masculinity comes through. You can see he's definitely a boy. The Marks have brought some other artefacts that suggest the Romans were also active in this same field. You've got the coins there as well. You've got your two soldiers with the standards, which is quite a common Roman coin. They're sending propaganda across the empire just saying how great the Roman army is by using this imagery on the back of these coins. Three of these coins here have been fused together. Now, that's quite interesting. They've been placed in the ground as a group. And the evidence of Roman occupation doesn't end there. Oh, my goodness. Let's have a look through this. Where did you say this was from? Is this all from the same area? This is all from the same site. So that's really interesting, actually, that we've got the Iron Age boar and we've also got Roman pottery as well. It could be that we've got a continuation of use on that site from the Iron Age right through the Roman period. So you basically think on that box, we've got habitation from 50 BC on as late as 330, 350? Potentially. Thank you. That really puts us in the picture about what may be going on on this site. We're definitely going back, aren't we? Yeah, we're definitely going back, so thank you. If you find anything else, do give us a shout. We got your number. I can't believe all that vast range of material from just the one site. Something is definitely going on there. I can't wait to get back on that field now. Sunday morning? Yeah. Eight o'clock instead of nine? Seven o'clock, I'll be there. Today, the British Museum's scientific research department has invited Patrick up to London to discover more about his ribbon of gold. He's going beyond the galleries and into the museum's labs where metal scientist Laura Perruchetti has been examining his find. It came out of the soil like this, I think. Yeah, it did. It's beautiful. I know, it's lovely. Using an XRF spectrometer, Laura can reveal just how gold Paddy's gold really is. This X-ray establishes the amount of each element in Paddy's ribbon. To be officially declared treasure and subject to a finder's reward, it needs a precious metal content of at least 10 percent. And the results are in. Look at how big it is. Gold is so overwhelming that I couldn't see anything else. So definitely a lot of gold. Awesome. This is, yep, silver. Really, there's silver in there? Oh, wow. The composition of this object is consistent, like a bronze age, but I'm a little bit, how can I say, surprised by this amount of gold because it's pretty high. Let's say a little bit higher than what I'm usually seeing. What I would like to do now is looking at it under the microscope. Oh, that would be amazing. Under the digital microscope, we could assess about the kind of damage that it has, but also something about how it has been produced. When magnified by up to 200 times its size, Laura is able to reveal just how delicate the gold is. At less than a millimetre thick, its survival for centuries in the soil, not to mention Paddy's rubbish bag, is remarkable. The detail of that is amazing. I still can't believe I almost threw that in the bin. Oh, I can see something interesting here. Yeah. Can you see this kind of inclusion in the gold? Yes. OK. It's indicating that this gold was taken from the river. Gold that are coming from a mine usually doesn't have this kind of inclusion. It's amazing to think someone thousands of years ago went into whatever river it was or lake and picked out that gold, and now we're studying it thousands of years in the future. It's amazing. Isn't it amazing? Laura's analysis, including the mystery of the surprising amount of gold, will now be studied by the museum's curators as they try to determine who Paddy's ribbon may have belonged to and whether it's definitely Bronze Age. Today, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Fines liaison officer, Sushila Burford, is holding a surgery in the West Midlands countryside. It's so nice to see people of all different ages and backgrounds. It's something that everyone can get involved in. That's just what I love about archaeology. First through Sushila's door is 81-year-old Annie Yates, who's been swinging her detector since the 70s. Got my husband to buy one for himself, and he said, I can't stand the beeping in my ears. It's idiotic. And we had a divorce nearly. And so I took over the detector, and he couldn't prise it out of my hands. I mean, it was an obsession. Hello. Lovely to meet you. First of all, we have this little man, a statue of Mercury. He's my friend. He's your friend. With a detecting career spanning four decades, Annie's become something of an expert herself. Right, do you want to tell me a little bit about what you know about him? Well, the site I found it on was definitely Roman. Yes, Mercury with his little winged ankles. Finding it on a Roman site does give it weight that it was Roman in origin. Yes. But equally, in the Georgian period, they were pests, and they liked to revive the classical styles, and they did turn this sort of image into a pipe tamper. So, I mean, it's possible it could be either, but it's so delicate, isn't it? I think it isn't sturdy enough to be a pipe tamper. Shall we say he's a little Roman chappy because you found him on a Roman site? Yeah, I mean, we can't do his DNA, can we? No, well, that's it. That's the thing about history and archaeology, I suppose, isn't it? We never fully know. It's wonderful. It doesn't matter what you find. It's the anticipation of it. Absolutely. Because you're out of doors and lots of friends. How many years have you been doing it now, Annie? I'm not telling you. Annie is part of an all-female detecting collective called the Sassy Searchers. While there's no doubt metal detecting is a male-dominated hobby, more and more women are putting coil to the soil. Good morning, everybody. In 2018, Michelle Val set up a tight-knit online tribe for female detectorists. Welcome to the first Sassy Searchers dig. And it's since grown to 700 members. I'm so excited to get everybody together. We'll meet up at last, or some of us. I'm going to get emotional now because I feel really proud. I'd meet an odd lady or two on group digs, so I thought, how would I be able to connect with them? Because we all lived in different areas. And so I decided to start a women's-only group. Have a lovely time today. Go and find some history. All right. Michelle's arranged permission from the landowner for her group to detect in this field near Wem in Shropshire. It's something off a piece of furniture, some kind of screw. During the week, Michelle works as a teaching assistant in Blackpool. But weekends are for detecting, and her trusty camper van takes her all over the country. I call her Noxy after my metal detector. She's an equinox. And then if you go inside, you'll see her charging station for the metal detectors. And that's it. And I can do my hair with a hairdryer too. But for Michelle, metal detecting is much more than just a pastime. I got into metal detecting because of my mental health. I was diagnosed with PTSD from my childhood, six years ago. I couldn't leave the front gate of my house. And somebody suggested metal detecting was a way of helping people with that condition. When you're anxious, your head's always going all the time. So it's the only time my head's ever peaceful. You know, just concentrate on the sounds. It gives me peace when I've got those headphones on. Despite only detecting since 2016, Michelle has already made the find of a lifetime. It was about six months after I started detecting when I found it. I've just got my first gold coin. The condition of this extremely rare half angel, struck during Richard III's reign in the 15th century, has Michelle thinking that it could have gone on an uncomfortable journey to prevent it being stolen during the War of the Roses. They used to fold them before battle. The knights would swallow these coins. And then, obviously, wherever it came out of after it worked its way through. So we're not sure how it got into this particular field because it was 14 miles away from the Battle of Bosworth. I'll never forget the day, to be honest. Although some single coins can be claimed by the crown, Michelle's didn't qualify as treasure. So she was able to take it to auction, where the winning bidder was willing to pay 40,000 pounds for an object that, so the story goes, could have passed through the digestive tract of a Tudor knight. But will Michelle's gang discover anything of note today? Over in the West Country, Bristolian detectorist duo Mark Wilcox and Mark Lovell are at the field where they dug up an Iron Age boar and some Roman coins. And now they think they could have unearthed something even bigger. The signal was banging. Started digging it, called Mark over. And I said to Mark, there's a piece of pot here. And the signal was inside the pot, or what I thought was underneath the pot. Yeah. Oh, man. We thought, blimey, what have we found? I said to Mark, we've got to do the right thing here. We've got to contact the flow. It's a legal requirement to report a potential treasure find. But once exposed, a hoard site is vulnerable to theft. Significant historical discoveries can become the target of unscrupulous archaeological thieves. Nighthawks, as they're known, don't seek permission to detect on land and either keep or sell treasure illegally. We decided then we had to fill the hole back in. I trust my friends, but you never know who's going to find out. And it's too important to risk somebody destroying it. Time is critical. With nighthawks a potential threat, the find spot needs to be excavated as soon as possible. Kurt Adams, find's liaison officer for Gloucestershire and Avon, is on his way to meet Mark and Mark. Got here then, eventually. At the site of their potential Roman hoard. Seven days ago, they found a pot they're convinced is full of coins. And their detectors told them there could be more. Not quite sure what we're going to encounter. This is a unique opportunity to actually excavate a coin hoard. Normally, they're quite dispersed. It's Kurt's first chance to investigate. But there are concerns that someone could have got there before him. Nighthawks, these thieves, if they actually find out about a coin hoard, then they're going to steal these archaeological artefacts. So they're going to be stealing our heritage. So it's really important that we get this dug as quickly as we possibly can. When Kurt arrives, the first job is to check for evidence of nighthawking. So it is... Yep. There. Definitely. Yep, OK. Definitely. Don't look disturbed. It should be fine. Reassured the site is untouched, Kurt can now take a look at what the Marks dug up a week ago. This is what we've already found, and that's heavy. 2,000 years old, nearly. It's all intact. That's amazing. That is, yeah. And as you can see, it's all... We've not disturbed it too much. Rather than getting stuck in with spades, a sight of this potential significance calls for extreme care and caution. I'm just laying out a two metre by two metre trench. As soon as we've got the topsoil off, well, then we have to actually see the archaeology underneath before we can then start thinking about actually excavating the actual hoard itself. As time is of the essence, Devon, FINE's liaison officer, Lucy, has joined the excavation effort. Left or right? My right. Your right. That's it. Bit more, bit more. That's it. Groundwork laid, it's not long before they hit the target. If you go any further to the right, you'll be actually touching the hole that we excavated. So it's there. Yeah, that's it. A few bits of our own pot here. Oh, God, look at this, look at this. It's a lovely bit of rim. As the pottery piles up, they soon discover the real treasure. There you go. Roman coins. Getting more and more exciting every minute. It's just amazing. Likely hit by a plough, this second pot has its contents laid bare. Oh, that's nice. After the scattered contents of the second pot are recovered, something tantalising is revealed in the dirt. The more I look at this, the more I think we might have another complete pot. So we've now got three pots. A third pot has raised the bar on the importance of this site. It's just incredible, really. It's, to be totally honest, I'm just a little bit stunned by it. Very, very exciting. The only other time I was as excited was when I was cutting my children's umbilical cords. So if that can get across how exciting this is. I'm not 100% convinced that we're going to be able to get that out in one piece. Preservation of the archaeology is paramount, so Kurt and Lucy will need to harness all their specialist knowledge to recover the pot safely. Just trying to define the edges of this before we do anything drastic. So yeah, we've got a big crack there, so we can wrap it in plaster of parish bandages to try and keep it secure. Are you ready, Kurt? Oh, no. No, you're not, are you? I know. Nor me. Do you want me to lift it a little bit more and you can... Yeah, go for it. Try it. We both lift. Yeah. That'll be brilliant. There you are. You should be able to get under that now. One, two, three. Flipping heck. Oh my god. Let's lower it, really. Not over. So bring it over a bit more. I got my hand under it. Whoa, man, that is heavy. Well, there we go. And relax. That is heavy. That is seriously heavy. The weight of the pots could mean they contain enough coins to be declared treasure. And finders' rewards for sizable Roman coin hoards often reach six figures. This has been a brilliant find. And to find one, it's a great find. But to find three together, all buried in a line, was brilliant. And it was just, yeah, I've not seen something like that before. Let's put it in the car. But whether a Roman's fortune is sealed inside these pots is now a mystery for the British Museum's experts to solve. We've had worse days, haven't we? We certainly have. Back in the Shropshire countryside, Michelle Val and the rest of the sassy searchers are yet to strike gold. I'm not into the shiny stuff. I like lead. Lorraine Maud has been detecting for 18 years. Most people put gold or silver in boxes like this, but I put lead. So that would have carried holy water. Lorraine's prize find is a lead ampula. These containers were purchased by pilgrims in the 12th to 14th centuries at the shrines of revered saints. They believed the holy water contained within would impart saintly powers. That was off my local cricket, second wicket, where I play. Would have had a second loop here and worn round the neck, probably on a piece of cord. So they've lost a loop, so they've lost the artefact. And I was lucky enough to find it. Hopefully, might find a bit of lead today. My kids call me the mole. Mum the mole. Tracey Benbow is a recent convert to the hobby and is looking to make a more regal discovery. That could be anything from a toilet plaque to King Arthur's bread knife. And I'm going with King Arthur's bread knife on that one. You've got to have a good imagination when you're a metal detector. I found this thing that I thought was a sword. And I said to my friends, look at this, it's a medieval sword. My friends looked at me and they said, no Trace, that's not a sword. It's a hinge off a door. It was a hinge off the door, but never mind. It was a sword to me for a while. Elsewhere on the field, mum and daughter detectorists Lauren and Emily have a positive ID for their artefact. We think it's a shoe buckle because it's slightly curved here. It's quite pretty, isn't it? Yeah. Possibly Georgian, so quite old, isn't it? Yeah. No, I'm going to have more for now. OK. Bye bye. Bye. As the day draws to a close, the sassies gather to compare finds. I've got that funny thing. That's the thing about metal detecting, it's the mystery, isn't it? It's better than keep fit. I just want to say it has been fantastic to see you all and you've all come along. For Michelle, today marks a significant moment in her mental health recovery. Never thought six years ago when I started with my panic attacks and things that I could sit here and actually talk to anybody. We've come from far and wide, so it just shows you what a great group we are. It's like a little community. We're a family, aren't we, you know? Yeah, we are family. Thank you for everything you've done, Michelle. Thank you. It's all right. Thank you. My hobby keeps me sane, keeps me happy and I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for it. Just as individuals should record their discoveries, anything unearthed during group digs should also be taken to a finds liaison officer. So today, the youngest sassy searcher, eight-year-old Emily, has come along with mum Lauren to report her objects to Sashila. Hello. Hi, Emily. Hi, Lauren. Great to meet you. Thanks so much for coming to see me. So I found this buckle. Very nicely decorated. It is, isn't it? It looks really pretty. So this is made out of copper alloy and it dates to about the 18th century, so sort of 1700s. And you can see the curve on it. That means it went over a shoe, so that's someone's shoe buckle. So it probably would have been a lot shinier than this. And who would have worn one of those buckles? Oh, I would say some posh gent worn it on his nice shoes, probably nicely polished. So that's a really nice find. So well done for finding that and keep going. I bet one day I'm going to see you as Dr Emily somewhere, expert in archaeological finds. Yeah? Yeah. In central London, Mark and Mark's three Roman pots are being transferred to the British Museum under the protection of finds liaison officer Kurt. Deemed to be of significant interest, the pots are about to go through the treasure process, where they'll be investigated by specialist conservators and curators, a process that can take many months. It's quite a unique feeling to know you've got 2,000 years worth of history in the back of the car. You know you're the first person handling these objects in like 2,000 years. And it's a huge privilege. It's a massive privilege. Roman coins were discovered in the broken pot, but what's in the other two remains a mystery. Feel the weight of that. Wow. Senior treasure registrar Ian Richardson will see the hoard through the treasure process. First stop, the hotly anticipated x-ray. Can't wait to see what's actually inside them. It's amazing to get this here because there's been a lot of speculation what's actually in the hoards. We really want to find out what the conservators are able to actually uncover. They'll be really keen to get their trowels to it, as it were. Hello. Hi. Conservator Hazel Gardner has been tasked with micro-excavating the two intact pots. But before that can begin, she needs to see what she's contending with. The first thing we do is x-ray just to see what we can find out. Who knows what's in the other two. Could they be the same date? Could they be different dates? Could it be just completely different material? And this is rather lovely because it's a complete pot, so all credit to the finders. They are very, very, very heavy compared to the broken pot. So there is something quite substantial in there. Maybe even there might be some gold objects in there. Who knows? But it's going to be really exciting to find out. At the British Museum, the scientific data on Patrick Hooper's ribbon gold has been pored over by pre-history curator Dr Jennifer Wexler. Patrick's about to discover if it dates all the way back to the Bronze Age, as he hopes. I think it's a good chance that it's at least 3,000 years old, which is pretty amazing. The gold is soft and malleable, making it perfect for shaping into jewellery or decorative ribbon for hair or clothing. There's not a huge amount of personal adornments until this period in the middle of the Bronze Age, where we kind of have an explosion of beautiful personal objects. One of the things they make a lot of is bracelets. And also these little kind of rings they put in their hair. And so that's what we think maybe it fits into that period. Jennifer is helping to curate a new exhibition for the British Museum about Stonehenge, Britain's greatest prehistoric monument, which stands only 20 miles from the ribbon's find site. So do you reckon it was sort of related to Stonehenge? Because Stonehenge was really quite close. What we're discovering is that the roots of Stonehenge are much deeper than we expected, which is very, very recent research. And we definitely know people were moving through those landscapes. There is definitely a tradition of people wanting to sort of show their identity and their status in a very particular way. You start thinking whether or not, you know, someone could have been walking towards Stonehenge. Oh, definitely. You know, wearing this nice gold ribbon and fell off, lost it. So you are connected to that story for sure. Awesome. Connected to Stonehenge. Well done, that man. Patrick's ribbon gold has been officially declared treasure by the coroner, which means museums have first option to acquire it. So the good news is the Hampshire Cultural Trust has raised money to acquire it for your local museum. That's really awesome. Well done, that man. So good. Fantastic. All I need now is my name against it. Found by Patrick Cooper, age 10, 11 now, 11 now. That'd be so cool. Over a year ago, Paddy's discovery nearly ended up in the rubbish. Now he knows it's an unusual piece of 3,000-year-old ribbon gold, possibly used as hair decoration by worshippers on their way to Stonehenge. The news we've had is that they valued it at £1,000. So I will get £500 of that, and in the land I only get £500, so split it in half. What are you going to spend your £500 on? A new machine, definitely. Awesome, I can't believe that. Really proud of you, mate. Thank you. It's been almost two months since Mark Wilcox and Mark Lovell discovered three pots of potential treasure. And at the British Museum, conservator Hazel Gardner has spent the last week delicately working on the coins from the broken pot. So my role is to complete all the cleaning of all of the coins, to do all of the micro-excavations and to produce reports. As long as I can get the mint mark out, that is the identification of the coin, that's the key thing. Hazel's painstaking work, usually an hour a coin, will allow each one to be ID'd, enabling the hoard to be valued. Although the metal has corroded out, the form of the coin and the features are still there. So basically what we're doing is trying to clean up the mud and the silicates, but to retain this conservation surface. It's quite difficult because it is really soft. But today, she's briefly downing tools. Finders Mark and Mark have come up from Bristol and they're dying to know what Hazel has discovered inside the intact pots. Lovely to meet you. But first, they get a look at the pot itself. OK, I thought we'd start with this one. Oh my God, all the hands are all intact and everything. The immediate interesting things about this is this dent here. One theory is that the Romans would often use substandard pots. I suppose if you're going to bury something, you don't want to be burying it in your best pot. I mean, that's incredible. We didn't realise there was any decoration on it. I mean, I can't believe how much detail there is on it. Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. But it's absolutely brilliant to have got it out intact like that. We want to know what's in there. Hazel's X-ray is a window into the past. But it takes an expert eye to work it out. You can see by the complete white out in the middle, there's a lot of metal in there. And on the edges there, you can make out the coin shapes. And they look like they're coming quite high up the neck of the vessel. It's absolutely stuffed to the top with coins. Incredibly, the team have an ID on the coins just from the X-ray. And it matches what Hazel has already discovered in the broken pot. These are the coins from the scattered pot. The bulk of them that we've cleaned so far seem to be commemorative Constantine coins. Constantine the Great was Roman emperor between 307 and 337 AD, during which time he founded a new eastern capital, Constantinople, and Christianity became the official Roman religion. The X-ray of the second pot shows it's equally jam-packed full of coins. And over the next few weeks, Hazel discovers a further 1,862 coins in the smaller pot and a whopping 4,271 coins in the larger pot. So with more than 6,500 coins in their hoard, the marks are dreaming big. My daughters asked me to buy her a house. It's still an unfolding story. Yeah. Watch your space.