Posted on 11/20/2008 5:29:44 PM PST by BGHater
For 40 years, Maurice Richardson has been braving all weathers to scour the countryside with his trusty metal detector, dreaming of buried treasure.
But he almost ignored an unpromising-sounding beep as he searched for debris from a wartime air crash while being pelted with rain.
However the 59-year-old is glad his curiosity got the better of him after his persistence in digging through more than two feet of Nottinghamshire mud yielded a stunning 2,000-year-old gold treasure.
Metal detector enthusiast Maurice Richardson discovered this 2,000-year-old gold torc while digging through two feet of Nottinghamshire mud
Now the artefact, an Iron Age torc, has been sold for a mammoth £350,000, and yesterday it was unveiled at the British Museum as the most valuable discovery in recent times.
The intricately decorated collar was so perfect that Mr Richardson, a tree surgeon in his day job, initially struggled to convince experts it wasn't a forgery.
'I got the signal, but it was raining quite hard and I thought it was not going to be worth it," he said yesterday.
'However, it played on my mind, so I started to dig.
'It was about two foot four inches down and when I got within four inches I decided to use my hand. I got down on my stomach and started scraping the soil away and it was then I saw what it was.
'You look and look for things like this and you read about other people finding them, but it never happens to you.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Mega Bling Ping
Bling Ping...
My best laugh of the day!
Gold digger!!!!
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It’s gorgeous!! Look at that workmanship.
That was my first thought too. What exquisite workmanship.
Wow!
That is cool!!!
I love stories like this... National Treasure in real life.
That is one beautiful piece of jewelry!
To think that it took an aircraft crash nearly 70 years before to even cause some mild interest in the site. . .wow, what incredible odds against this artifact ever being unearthed!
ping for study
Metal Detector sales skyrocket in the UK.
Torcs were worn by Clan Chiefs and their sons. So it would be a guy thing.
Somedays I wish our Indians would have been into goldsmithing. All we get is damn arrowheads. Which is great when you are a kid.
Holeeeee ... look at the workmanship on that! Wow, just gorgeous. Yes, makes you wonder how Clan Chief misplaced it.
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