Hoard of Roman silver coins unearthed by metal detectorists from Essex sells for £80,000

A hoard of 142 Roman silver coins discovered by three metal detectorists has been sold for double its estimated value.

All of the coins were sold, with the final total coming in at £81,160 . They were found two years ago by Mick Rae, Rob Abbott and Dave Allen.

All three were on a camping holiday at the time.

53-year-old Rob, from Essex, said: "I turned on my machine and having walked around six paces from the tent, I found several tent pegs and just under the surface a late Roman silver siliqua in pristine condition. A few moments later beside it, I found another one!”

This prompted both Mick and Dave to grab their detectors and help in the search. Over the course of the weekend they found 161 coins in total dating from AD 340-402.

They had to keep them in their camping washing-up bowl as they didn’t have anything else to store them in.

After the Auction, Rob said: “I am gobsmacked, this is the first auction that I have ever been to, so to see my own items sell so well was amazing. We will obviously share the sale proceeds with the landowner, but I will buy a new camera.”

The British Museum studied the coins, found on a field in Wiltshire, and retained two for their collection.