Treasure hunting is undoubtedly an exciting activity to do. The prospect of finding valuables that have been hidden for centuries is an adrenaline rush for amateurs and experts alike. Whether the item is an old spoon or a piece of jewelry, the discovery itself can be rewarding.
Of course, the latter find is what most people secretly hope for, and for one 45-year-old man, that’s exactly what he found in late July.
Jason Massey, a pest control officer, made an extraordinary and rare find around the town of Crewkerne in Somerset district, England. Using a metal detector, he unearthed a 1,800-year-old Roman signet gold ring, reported the BBC.
However, the ring wasn’t the first valuable he found at the site. “I found a hoard of 30 coins,” Massey said in the BBC video. “I had another signal around about three inches lower than the coin levels were coming up, so I scraped away; then we found some gold.” At first, Massey thought he may have found gold coins.
“Then after five minutes of taking the earth away from this gold item, this beautiful, amazing, Roman ring came out,” he said.
The 48-gram (approx. 2-ounce) ring features an onyx engraving of Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, riding a chariot pulled by two horses. The jewelry is estimated to be from 200 to 300 AD.
“There are a couple of gold rings of that sort of date from Somerset but they’re not common,” Ciorstaidh Hayward-Trevarthen, finds liaison officer for South West Heritage Trust, told the BBC.
The ring is now with the British Museum in London for evaluation. Once the value is determined, Massey and the landowner will share the profits equally, according to the MailOnline.
Massey was with the group Detecting for Veterans when he made the discovery. Last November, the organization also found a Roman lead coffin and 250 copper coins in the same area.
Although the value of the ring is most likely considerable, it is not what interests Massey and his friends the most.
“There’s load of figures floating about [for the value of the ring] but we’re interested in the villa, who’s lived there and where they’ve come from and who the person was that wore this ring,” he shared.
