Celtic treasure worth $16.5 million found on Island of Jersey

Celtic treasure worth $16.5 million found on
Island of Jersey

Amateur archaeologists have unearthed one of the biggest buried treasures in the Europe, almost a ton of gold and silver coins dating back almost 2000 years.

The treasure was discovered on Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands off the coast of Northern France. The exact quantity of coins in the find has yet to be determined, as over the time metal mixed with clay pressed into what now looks more like a mass of bullion. Preliminary estimates suggest there might be between 30,000 and 50,000 coins. The value of the find may be anything between $5 million to $16.5 million.
Reports say that the coins date to 50 BC.  The Celtic tribe of Corisolites apparently used these coins.
Scientists believe the fortune might have been buried on Jersey by the French Celts ahead of the Roman invasion led by Julius Caesar in the middle of the 1st century BC.
The area of Grouville on Jersey has long attracted local treasure hunters. The lucky ones were Reg Mead and Richard Miles, who have been searching for the treasure for 30 years.

"We hit something hard, put the trowel hit, the shovel in, and just moved it, and you hear that grinding noise of metal rubbing against metal. We just flicked it up and up came five Iron Age coins," ITV news quotes the lucky treasure hunters as saying.   (rt.com)