A rare 2,000-year-old Roman coin discovered by a 76-year-old farmer has been sold at auction for £4,700. Ron Walters, from Kingswinford, unearthed the gold coin depicting Emperor Aulus Vitellius while metal detecting near Wall Heath, Dudley, last year. The coin was purchased by a collector from Scotland at Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge.
The coin, dated to 69 CE, is considered by historians to be the first aureus of Vitellius found in England and is the only one of its kind in the British Isles. Experts have evaluated the find as "a discovery one might encounter once in a lifetime."
Emperor Aulus Vitellius, known for his luxurious and extravagant lifestyle, ruled for just eight months during a turbulent period of civil war known as the "Year of the Four Emperors." During his brief reign, instability prevailed.
"My detector gave a signal; I started digging but lost the signal. Then I got a signal again on a piece of soil about 60 cm away. When I broke the ground, the coin fell into my palm. My heart was about to jump out; I immediately put it in my pocket and went home," Walters said.
Walters, a retired boilermaker, shared that he hadn't initially planned to go out that day. "Actually, I was thinking of not going out that day, but my wife said, 'Come on, just go a little bit,' and kicked me out of the house. I'm glad I went," he said with a smile.
Before the coin was put up for auction, the British Museum examined its authenticity and eventually allowed the coin to be sold. The proceeds from the sale will be shared with the landowner.
The coin has attracted great interest from historians and collectors alike. "Finding a coin from this era is incredibly rare," a coin expert explained.
"Finding a coin from 69 CE is an incredibly rare occurrence. Most coins we find in this country date to the third and fourth centuries, and we are talking about a time when gold was of the purest quality," said Mark Hannam, a representative of Fieldings Auctioneers. He added that the collector who purchased the coin is "very pleased to add it to his collection."
"It was a wonderful thing to be part of a historical discovery," Walters said. "I'll keep searching for treasures with my metal detector and plan to use the proceeds from my recent find to repair my motorhome and continue my hobby," he said.
Despite the coin selling for less than a similar artifact that was auctioned in Switzerland last year for about £50,000, Walters is satisfied with the outcome.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.