Rookie hunter's haul of treasure

The novice treasure hunter hit it lucky with pal Tom Brand when they both went out with the equipment Simon had just bought in a shop in Worksop.

And experts at the British Museum say the 310 denari coins they found on common land off Bawtry Road near a Jet garage date back almost 2,000 years, with the most recent in the hoard being dated at AD 180.

The coins were dug up in October 2005 - and now Doncaster coroner Stanley Hooper has declared them treasure after a hearing in the borough. This means the find belongs to the Crown - but the hunters who found them hope they may get a reward for finding the coins and turning them in.

Simon, aged 35, of Truro Avenue, Wheatley, and Tom, 35, of Ely Road, Wheatley, were out with the metal detector along with Simon's son Ben, a 15-year-old Arm-thorpe School pupil.

Simon said: "I had only bought the metal detector second-hand three weeks before, and it was only the fourth time I'd been out with it. I knew it had once been a Roman Road around that area. But I'd only found modern coins up until then, with oldesta Victorian penny.

"Then I got a signal from a coin that was more or less in the grass. I went over it with the metal detector but didn't really know what it was.

"Tom said he thought it looked Roman. It looked as if it had already been disturbed. We think it might have been ploughed up when they were digging to plant food in the days of Dig for Victory in World War Two.

"Then we found more and more. We got them home and counted them, and then contacted Doncaster Museum. I asked them what the laws were and handed them.

"I don't know if I will get a reward or not - it would be great if I did. But if not, at least I can show them to my grandchildren in a museum one day and tell them it was me that found them.

Also found were pieces of Roman pottery,