PAUL BUXEY was expecting, after his metal detector went off yet again, to frustratingly find it was yet another ring pull from a Coke can.
Instead the electrician got a shock when he discovered, as he bent down to the soil in a field in Shipton-on-Cherwell, it was actually a 700-year-old a medieval gold ring.
He had been out with his metal detecting club, The Metal Detectives, a year ago and said just prior to his discovery he had come across three Coca-Cola can ring pulls “which give a very similar signal” to the gold ring.
He expected it to be the same but found the ring – a medieval distorted gold finger ring with a red stone insert thought to be a garnet – was beneath about six inches of soil.
While the 50-year-old’s wife Kelsey was “over the moon”
when he brought home the finger ring, she will not get to wear the piece after it was classified a treasure at an inquest yesterday.
The ruling, made at Oxford Coroner’s Court, means the ring effectively belongs to the public and is likely to be put on display at a museum.
Mr Buxey stands to split the proceeds of a sale with landowner James Price if a museum buys the 14th-century ring.
He said: “The Oxford Museum has shown an interest in acquiring the ring.”
The father-of-three, who lives in Thatcham, Berkshire, took up metal detecting about three years ago.
He said: “It was something I always wanted to do. It’s the history, not knowing what could be under your feet.”
His first major find, in 2013, was a gold coin dated around 50BC, which he was able to keep because it was a single coin.
The ring, which he describes as his “best ever find”, measures 22mm wide by 23mm long and weighs about 2 grams. While the ring will now be likely housed in a museum, Mr Buxey was allowed to take the it home for the first week to show it off to his family.
Coroner Darren Salter yesterday also deemed to be treasure a bronze Stone Age gold bead, circa 1,500BC to 1,100BC, found on land owned by Ben Smith in Lockinge on April 1, 2014.
An expert said the 2 gram bead, was “a relatively rare find”.
Other objects officially labelled treasure at inquests yesterday included: five Iron Age gold coins called staters, found on October 26, 2013 in Milton-under-Wychwood that date to circa 80BC to 60BC; a medieval silver gilt badge depicting St George on horseback found on August 2, 2014 in Milton-under-Wychwood; and a fragment of a ninth-century gilded strapend found on September 20, 2014 in Nuffield.
- A silver gilt badge discovered in Milton-underWychwood
The strap-end includes the image of a foot on a book plus Anglo-Saxon capital letters in the script with an Old English text.
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