The man who unearthed a hoard of Roman coins said the “Gods will be pleased” after it was announced they will stay in the county where they were found.
The Frome hoard – the largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed in a single container – will go to the Museum of Somerset thanks to a grant of almost £300,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
The silver and bronze coins were found in Somerset last year by metal detector enthusiast Dave Crisp, from Wiltshire.
He said it was “very important” the coins stayed in the county.
“I’ve said all along my whole aim is to help the people here, to help the museum, to help Somerset to get these coins. That was the most important thing,” he said.
“These coins were put there by the Romans and these Romans had been there for five, six, seven generations, over 200 years, so they were more Somerset people than they were Romans really.
“They put them in there for the Gods and I think the Gods will be pleased now that they are staying here.”
Mr Crisp said the day he found the hoard was any “normal day of metal-detecting” and, after getting permission from his wife, he headed off on a “lovely sunny day”.
He found several coins scattered in the fields a few days before uncovering the pot of 52,503 coins.
Speaking of the moment he found the Roman hoard, he said: “I pulled out another chunk of clay and I turned it over and there, stuck in this nice yellow clay, is about 15-20 coins.
“I then realised I had got a hoard, there was a pot of coins down there.
“I sat there and went ‘I’ve done it, I’ve done it, 22 years and I’ve found a hoard of Roman coins, still in the pot, in the ground’.”
Mr Crisp re-covered the pot not knowing how big it was or the number of coins it contained. Days later he returned with an archaeologist.
As he saw the site being excavated and the size of the find emerge, he said: “I thought ‘this is it, this is the biggest thing that I have ever found in my life and will probably ever find’.”
The hoard, with coins dating between 253AD and 293AD, benefited from an intensive fundraising campaign, which included grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and the Art Fund, along with donations from various organisations and money raised by the public. The coins will be on display when the Somerset Museum’s £6.9 million revamp is completed in the summer. Funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund has also helped save the Iron Age gold hoard discovered near Stirling in Scotland for the nation.
The four gold neck ornaments known as torcs, which date from between the 3rd and 1st century BC, will go on display at the National Museum of Scotland.
The treasure consists of two pieces of jewellery made from twisted ribbons of gold, an ornate torc from southern France – the only one of its kind found in Britain – and a unique braided gold wire neck ornament.
It has been saved thanks to a £154,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund which exists to save outstanding parts of the country’s heritage in memory of people who gave their lives for the UK, and £100,000 from the Art Fund.
The National Museums Scotland contributed £123,000 and the Scottish government put in £85,000 to purchase the hoard for the nation.
Dame Jenny Abramsky, chairperson of the NHMF, said: “These stunning hoards, which provide true insight into Britain’s rich and diverse history, now join a magnificent collection of heritage treasures the National Heritage Memorial Fund has safeguarded for the nation over the last 31 years.”
Stephen Deuchar, director of the Art Fund, said: “Both the Roman coins in Somerset and torcs in Scotland are going to absolutely the right places where generations can learn, enjoy and be inspired by them, and experts can carry out vital research.”