Bexhill Museum wants High Weald Hoard

Now, after years of classification, the British Museum has released the treasure and Tim wants to see it take pride of place in Bexhill Museum.

It was a cold evening in December 2005. The light was fading, and Tim's search for Anglo-Saxon coins had turned up nothing, the latest failure of a fruitless year around a bridleway near Burwash.

When it started to rain, he left the footpath and ran straight across the fields, metal detector swinging wildly by his side.

"One of the things metal detectors love is the thought they are going to come across the huge find," said Tim, now 72. "But when it started beeping as I was running, my initial reaction was, sod it. But then you think, what if?"

In a hole three inches deep, he found two old coins, which he dismissed as George III pennies.

Months later, after an expert identified them as silver antoniani Roman coins from the third century, Tim spent weeks trying to remember the spot until lightening struck at 3am, when he sat up in bed, and knew.

"When I started to dig, I couldn't have picked them out fast enough.

"The ground was covered with clover, and as I pulled it out the coins were coming up like dangling earrings on the roots. They were silver, and they were still sparkling.

"My heart was thumping, I could hardly breathe. I knew it was real but it was of a nature like a dream."

Tim had stumbled upon what Dr Roger Bland, Head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum called on BBC Radio 4 the most important find of Roman 3rd Century coins in Britain since the 1930s.

Around 1,900 coins came out the ground including one, a Tranquilina coin, worth around 4,000. The High Weald Hoard, as it has become known, has been conservatively valued at 40,000.

Declared treasure by coroner Alan Craze, the coins are now being offered to museums.

Tim, of Bateman's Lane, Burwash, wants them in Bexhill. The snag is the price tag.

"It's a historic collection and should stay nearby," said Tim, who is now hoping a local benefactor will step forward to secure the hoard.

"Bexhill was immediately interested. It's a wonderful museum that offers a lot to the public, and I can't think of a better home. I'd love to see the coins there."

Julian Porter, curator of Bexhill Museum, said: "We'd certainly love to have them on show in our museum.

"It would be an amazing boost to the Roman heritage of the area, which is currently underrepresented."

But with the museum's acquisition budget currently frozen, the prospect of acquiring the coins is a long way off.

Other museums have expressed an interest, as have private coin dealers, and without a generous philanthropist, the find looks set to pass Bexhill by.

Tim, who was bought the metal detector by his partner, human rights campaigner Lesley Abdela, for his 65th birthday, said he would encourage all retirees to invest.

"I think everyone over 50 should get a metal detector on the National Health Service, they make you take them out for walks, just like dogs, but much cheaper on feeding them.

"Someone came along and dug this hole in 260AD, completely intending to come back.

"But treasure makes you wonder what happened to those that left it.

"They say all finds are past tragedies.