The Staffordshire Hoard as it's been called show's dedicated antiques collectors that there are many, many items from our history still to be discovered. Archaeologists, historians and enthusiasts will be pouring overe the hoard for decades and museum that finally houses the artefacts will profit from countless exhibitions over the coming years.
Terry Herbert, who discovered the hoard, lives alone in a council flat drawing disability benefits from government coffers. Fourteen years ago he paid £2.50 for a battered metal detector at a boot sale. A few days ago he learnt that his small purchase may have made him a millionaire.
The only discovery of antique gold that comes close to Terry Herbert's find is the burial site excavated in 1939 at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, where less than 2kg (4.4lb) of gold was discovered. The Staffordshire Hoard is made up of 5kg of Saxon gold and 2.5kg of silver.
The Hoard is made up of over 1,500 individual items. Most are gold, although some are silver. Many are decorated with precious stones. The quality of the craftsmanship displayed on many items is supreme, indicating possible royal ownership
Terry first unearthed the Hoard in July 2009 finding it just beneath the surface of the Staffordshire field, probably after the farmer ploughed his land deeper than usual. Had Terry not found it when he did, something like a power harrow could have turned the hoard into gold dust.
The high points in the hoard include what appears to be a gold-alloy cheek protector decorated with running animals, a crumpled gold cross that appears to have been folded by those who buried it and a strip of gold bearing a biblical inscription in Latin. Experts believe the saxon gold pieces were made as early as the late 6th century and as late as the 8th century.
No doubt Terry Herbert will lose touch with his Staffordshire Hoard as it travels the world, but Terry will always recall the day and the moment when that glint in the dirt opened his eyes to the possibility of riches.
Maybe, at some point in the future Terry will use his new found riches to research the hoard and discover, again by chance, that some small part belonged to his distant ancestor, an Anglo-Saxon King of Mercia.
£4,181.46
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