I found 380 solid gold and silver coins the second time I went metal detecting

A DETECTORIST found a hoard of 400-year-old silver coins on only his second outing.

Jon Randle had previously turned up just some rusty nails and a butter knife.

But the boiler engineer then stumbled on the 380 precious coins using a metal detector he bought on Amazon for £150.

The loot is thought to have been buried during the Civil War of 1642-51 and contains money from the reigns of Charles I, James I, Elizabeth I and Mary I.

Jon, 27, said: “They’re all solid silver coins and one gold coin.

“It’s amazing to think that no one has touched them for 400 years. The top of the pot was 15 inches down.

“When we saw the top, we knew it could be something so we dug around and realised how big it was.

“When someone put it in the ground, you could see they’d put it in on its side with the coins spilling out. It was probably done in a bit of haste.

“It would be nice to know the story about why someone buried them. It was such an amazing find and we celebrated by heading to the pub.”

Jon, of Hinckley, Leics, has reported the find in Coventry as treasure.

A coroner will decide whether it goes to a museum or can be sold, as well as how much reward the finder will get.

Jon added: “All I’ve found before is old rusty nails and knives. Now it’s something that I want to get into, but I’ll probably be quite disappointed by anything else I find.”