LONDON: The largest hoard of Iron Age Celtic coins found anywhere in northern Europe has been discovered by two amateur metal detectorists who have been searching in the same field in Jersey for 30 years.

Reg Mead and Richard Miles found up to 50,000 silver and bronze coins, which remain clumped inside a massive block of soil.

They had been hunting for buried treasure inspired by legends that a local farmer once turned up silver coins while working on the land.

Earlier this year, they finally found 60 silver coins and one gold, dating from the 1st century BC.

Every coin, Mead said, gave them the same thrill. “We are talking about searching for 40 to 50 hours to get these coins out, and every one gives you the same buzz.”

They continued searching, convinced there was more to find.

When they uncovered the main hoard — which archaeologists believe is unrelated to the first coins they found — experts joined the excavation led by Philip de Jersey, chief archaeologist on Guernsey and a former Oxford University authority on Celtic coins. Conservators have only revealed a handful of the coins which became detached from the main block.

They are in remarkable condition and all believed to be from Armorica, modern Brittany and Normandy. Archaeology has already proved the close connections between the Channel Islands and the Brittany coast.

The coins would have been buried at a time when Caesar was slicing his way through Gaul, and hiding treasure would have seemed a prudent move.

Olga Finch, curator of archaeology at the Jersey Museum, called it a find of international importance.

De Jersey said the find was “certainly the largest hoard of Iron Age coins ever found, not just in Jersey but the whole of the Celtic coin-using world”. It has been suggested that it could be worth GBP10m.

By arrangement with the Guardian