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Metal detectorists have unearthed the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins yet to be found in England.

Four gold objects were discovered with 131 coins in a field in west Norfolk, most by the same detectorist.

Ten coins were found by a serving Police Officer who tried.

A Treasure inquest has been opened into the " internationally-significant" find, which hopes to acquire.

Gareth Williams , curator of early medieval coins, said the " hugely important find" which dates to the same era as the Sutton Hoo ship burial near Woodbridge in Suffolk, is " the largest coin hoard of the period known to date".

The First coin was discovered in 1991, but it was not in until 2014 that further coins, dating to about AD610, were found.

Some were, but most, which broadly corresponds to modern day France.

Numismatist Adrian Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, said: " All the coins were minted on The Continent , as we didn't have gold coins of Our Own then. "

This includes coins cast from the same die in the same workshop as.

A stamped gold pendant, a Gold Bar and two other pieces of gold were found at the same time, suggesting the hoard should be seen as bullion, valued by weight rather than Face Value .

Dr Marsden said: " It seems to have been built up by someone moving around the Merovingian kingdom.

" And as it was found near an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and scattered by centuries of ploughing. "

The hoard includes coins not previously known to experts and another that was only known through a drawing in a book dating to 1666 but has since been lost.

The previous largest Anglo-Saxon coin hoard - 101 coins in a purse - was.

The Staffordshire hoard, discovered in 2009 and.

Norwich Castle and Art Gallery curator Tim Pestell described is as an " internationally-significant find" which " reflects the wealth and continental connections enjoyed by the early Kingdom of East Anglia . "

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Source of news: bbc.com