Huge Treasure Find in British Field

If patience is a virtue, then British detectorist Tim Cox just might be a saint. Nearly 50 years after buying his first metal detector in 1979, the 62-year-old retired truck driver struck paydirt last summer when he found 18 post-medieval silver coins dating from 1564 to 1604 in Derbyshire, England. 

“Part of being a metal detectorist is many, many days you’re finding rubbish,” he told the BBC. “We go through long periods of time finding nothing, and then you get a find like the one I made on [August 1], and it’s just wonderful.”

The coins were struck during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, monarchs whose faces are depicted on the silver coins Cox discovered. The coins have been deemed as treasure by Derbyshire Coroner’s Court because they are more than 300 years old and contain at least 10-percent precious metal, thresholds outlined in the Treasure Act of 1996. Items accordingly declared as “treasure” become property of the Crown and can therefore be secured by museums for the purposes of public display. 

The assistant coroner for Derby and Derbyshire reported Derby Museum’s interest in procuring the coins. Cox says that finding the treasure was “just amazing, it’s a wonderful experience.”