While Out for a Walk, an Englishman Stumbled Upon a 4,000-Year-Old Solid Gold Treasure

Billy Vaughan, a hobbyist metal detectorist, was out for a walk
in his hometown of Whitehaven, England, when he stumbled upon the
discovery of a lifetime: a 22-carat solid gold band dating to the
Bronze Age.

A care worker by day, Vaughan had taken to strolling around the
town in Cumbria, a remote port on England’s western coast, with a
metal detector. It was a few hours into one recent walk that
he got a “strong signal” coming from the earth
below, he told the Daily Mail.

When he uncovered the metal about five inches below the ground,
it turned out to be a circular piece of jewelry known as a torc.
Initially Vaughan thought it was “a piece of climbing equipment, or
perhaps coupling from a tractor.” In fact, the thick, rod-like
object was 11 ounces of solid gold, dappled with small indentations
and slightly folding over itself, with one terminal overlapping the
other to allow for an opening. Torcs have historically been worn as
an indicator of great wealth and social status.

When a friend told Vaughan to take the object in for appraisal,
a local jeweler told him that the gold alone was worth around
$13,000, but that its historical significance would add value.
Vaughan got in touch with the local museum, which will make a
ruling to decide if it constitutes “treasure” based on the Treasure
Act of 1996. If so, the government’s Treasure Valuation
Committee will set a price and he must first offer it to a museum
for purchase before finding a private buyer.

For Vaughan though, it’s an exciting find no matter what the
ruling. “I try not to get ahead of myself and think about the
money,” he told the newspaper, “To think I was the first person to
hold that torc in who knows how many years is quite something.”

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