Jammy treasure hunters discover over E13 million in Celtic gold
Treasure hunters on the island of Jersey have made one of the biggest buried treasure finds in European history, having unearthed over €13 million in Celtic gold.
The metal detector-wielders – who sadly, were not pirates – were attracted to the area of Grouville on Jersey, one of the British Channel islands near the coast of France, and there they found a quantity of between 30,000 to 50,000 coins, each silver and gold. Yes, somebody actually managed to bury all that originally…
It is estimated that the coins date back to 50 BC and had been used by the Celtic tribe of Corisolites. The Corisolites had an “army of the sun” back in the day and used to occupy North Brittany, naming its capital Corseul. Thanks, Google.
Scientists believe that the coins were buried by the Corisolites ahead of a Roman invasion from Julius Caesar but the tribe were evidently too forgetful or… dead to return back for their loot.
The staggering haul was discovered by just two treasure hunters using a powerful metal detector, Reg Mead and Richard Miles, both of whom had been searching for the treasure for three decades.
“The machine picked up a really strong signal – so we immediately got in touch with professional archaeologists,” recalled Mr Mead. “They started digging and we could not believe how many coins there were.
“All of them were stuck together. I have been searching for things like this since 1959 and never found anything on this scale before. We had been searching that land for 30 years.”
