Anglo-Saxon: Gold coins from Anglo-Saxon era found in Norfolk

The largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold coins EVER to be found in England has been declared treasure.

Metal detectorists found four gold objects and 131 coins in a field in west Norfolk.

The first coin was discovered in 1991, but it wasn't until 2014 that more coins - that date back to around AD610 - were found.

Some of the treasure collection has coins that experts hadn't known about and others that were only known through a drawing in a book dating to 1666 but has since been missing.

It is the most important hoard found in Norfolk "by a long way", according to coin expert Adrian Marsden

Norwich Castle are hoping to get the "internationally significant" hoard for their collection.

Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum, said the "hugely important find", is "the largest coin hoard of the period known to date".

Found at the same time, amongst the coins, were a stamped gold pendant, a gold bar and two other pieces of gold.

Dr Adrian Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service said: "It seems to have been built up by someone moving around the Merovingian kingdom."

"And as it was found near an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, it may have been buried in a barrow (burial) and scattered by centuries of ploughing," Dr Marsden added.

The largest Anglo-Saxon coin hoard before this was all the way back in 1828, in which 1,010 coins in a purse were found at Crondall in Hampshire.

Norwich Castle and Art Gallery curator, Tim Pestell, called it an "internationally significant find" which "reflects the wealth and continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia."

The hoard was officially declared treasure at an inquest in Norfolk.