UK NEWS

TREASURE HUNTERS IN BATTLE OVER £500,000 HOARD

DISPUTE: The pair are battling over their find

Saturday July 4,2009

By Mark Reynolds

TWO treasure hunters face a legal battle over how they are going to split a reward of up to £500,000 for finding a hoard of more than 800 gold coins.

Metal detecting enthusiast Michael Darke, 60, realised he might be on the trail of a major find when he found 10 Iron Age coins buried in a meadow.

He called his friend Keith Lewis, 54, for advice and invited him the next weekend to help him search the land at Dallinghoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Within an hour of arriving in the field on March 30 last year, the pair had unearthed the remains of an Iron Age pot containing another 773 gold coins.

Suffolk County Council archaeologists later unearthed another 42, making it the largest Iron Age hoard found in Britain since 1849.

A coroner yesterday recorded a verdict that the hoard was treasure, allowing the finders to receive the full value of the coins on their sale to a museum, estimated at between £300,000 and £500,000.

But more than 16 months since the historic find, lorry driver Mr Darke and postman Mr Lewis have so far not agreed how the money should be split.

The pair arrived separately with their own lawyers at the treasure inquest in Ipswich and did not exchange a word afterwards.

Coroner Dr Peter Dean recorded Mr Darke as the initial finder and suggested that he and Mr Lewis might have to go to court to sort out the matter if they could not reach an agreement.

Dr Dean said: “It is not for any inquest to determine how any benefits from such a find are distributed. It is a matter for mutual agreement or at some point, if there is not an agreement, it is another forum. It is not a matter for this inquest.”

Most of the coins are believed to have been made in Norfolk and Suffolk by the Iceni tribe around 40BC and AD15-20.

They are thought to have been buried by predecessors of the Iceni’s Queen Boadicea who led a revolt against the occupying Romans in AD61.

Mr Darke had permission from farmer Clifford Green, 66, to use his metal detector on the 200-acre site in return for splitting the value of any find.

But Mr Lewis, of Great Blakenham, near Ipswich, who has known Mr Darke for 15 years, is also demanding a share for his efforts.

He is suggesting father-of-two Mr Green and his family keep 50 per cent while he and Mr Darke, of Woodbridge, share the other half equally.

Mr Darke said after the hearing: “I have come to no arrangements with anybody.”

Asked about his advice to other treasure hunters, he said: “Be very careful who you tell and who you don’t tell. Tell the landowner first and be careful who you go with because it can backfire.”

Ian Leins, of the British Museum, said the coins pre-dated the Roman conquest of Britain in AD43.

He said they might have been buried as a religious offering or for safekeeping, possibly to be paid later as tribute to neighbouring rulers.

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