A huge cache of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver items has been found in a field in Staffordshire and officially declared to be treasure.

The ruling by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh means the haul of at least 1,345 items will now be valued by a committee of experts before being offered for sale.

Ruling the cache of gold and silver items - much of it taken from weaponry - to be treasure, Mr Haigh said: "This is a magnificent find, both in terms of its content and its likely history."

Roger Bland, head of portable antiquities and treasure at the British Museum, told an inquiry in Cannock that the significance of the find was "only beginning to dawn" on the small number of experts who have examined it.

A total of 1,345 items have been examined by experts, although the list includes 56 clods of earth which have been X-rayed and are known to contain further metal artefacts, meaning the total number of items is likely to rise to around 1,500.

Mr Bland told the coroner: "It is at least as significant as any of the major discoveries of this period that have been made in the past."

Conceding that it may be difficult to establish the story which lies behind the astonishing find, Mr Bland added: "It is a fantastically important discovery.

"It is assumed that the items were buried by their owners at a time of danger with the intention of later coming back and recovering them."

The inquest heard that the haul was found by metal detectorist Terry Herbert just below the surface of a cultivated field in south Staffordshire in July.

Mr Bland said the hoard - thought to date back to between 675 and 725AD - was unearthed in what was once the Kingdom of Mercia. "I think wealth of this kind must have belonged to a king but we cannot say that for absolute certain," the expert told Mr Haigh.