Ancient coin find: 'I was beginning to doubt the detector'

Paul Coleman from the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club has described finding 5,251 coins buried inside a lead bucket two feet below the surface in a field near Aylesbury.

It is thought to be one of biggest hoards of ancient coins ever found in Britain.

Mr Coleman, from Southampton, was taking part in a dig in the Padbury area on 21 December when he found the coins depicting the heads of kings Ethelred the Unready and Canute.

He told the BBC: "If you look at the two kings that we know are in the hoard anyway, Canute and Ethelred II, they very rarely drop below £200 per coin".

The coins will now be examined by the British Museum.