A West Sussex man claimed he discovered a piece of ‘modified’ treasure while metal detecting in a Sussex farm.
James Britton, from Aldwick near Bognor Regis, was running a club called Sussex Metal Detecting Club when he discovered the piece of treasure in Horsted Keynes last year.
The piece of treasure has since been disclaimed by Lewes Museum.
Mr Britton said: “Both the members and myself were filled with optimism on this particular site because the farmer had informed us of a lone detectorist who had himself once found a gold coin on the farm and, more importantly, in the fields we had been allocated that day.
“To the mixed joy and annoyance from some of our members (considering they had already been metal detecting for a couple of hours) I walked out onto the field around midday and on my first signal, a target with a depth of about 8 inches, I could immediately see was almost certainly a gold coin.
“After carefully digging it out and plucking it from the ground I jumped with excitement, followed by a short ‘Gold Dance’ often performed by detectorists upon finding gold.
Mr Britton sent the item to Lewes Museum but it was later disclaimed as no museum officially wanted to purchase the coin.