Lenborough Anglo Saxon coin hoard valued at £1.35m

Some of the 5,251 silver coins after they had been cleaned by the British Museum

A metal detectorist is to get a share of £1.35m after finding a hoard of 5,251 Anglo Saxon silver coins.

Paul Coleman found the coins in Lenborough, Buckinghamshire, in 2014.

The Treasure Valuation Committee has ruled on their worth and Mr Coleman will split the money with the land owner.

The Buckinghamshire County Museum had already launched a fundraising campaign ahead of the valuation, with the aim of buying the hoard.

Paul Coleman was accepting the valuation by the treasure committee, although he thought they were probably worth more than £1.35m

The coins, which were found buried and wrapped in a sheet in the village near Buckingham, depict the heads of King Ethelred the Unready and King Canute and came from 40 different mints around England.

Mr Coleman, who lives in Southampton and is a member of the Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club, said he was accepting the valuation and wanted the hoard to go to the Buckinghamshire County Museum.

He said: "It's open to wild speculation and it has been suggested to me by some experts that was worth £2-3m.

"We believe it's worth more than £1.35m, but we can't really say by how much.

"It would probably be very difficult to get the value increased anyway and we would rather see the collection go to a museum, rather than separated and sold to collectors around the world."

The buried hoard was found wrapped in a sheet of lead

The BBC was unable to contact the Bucks County Museum at the time of writing, but in December it had raised £12,000 in pledges.

At the time, Brett Thorn from the museum said: "Our trustees will make a decision as to whether or not we are going to try to raise the money.

"Hopefully we will be able to, as we feel it is important to keep this in Buckinghamshire and keep it available in public hands for future research."

The coins are being looked after by the British Museum, which said it was supporting the local museum's bid to buy them.