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Eric Lawes, who was looking for a hammer
A friend lost a hammer in a field. What turned up instead was the largest Roman treasure hoard ever found in Britain.
14,865Roman coins in the Hoxne Hoard, plus 200 gold and silver objects.
In November 1992, a farmer in Hoxne, Suffolk lost a hammer in a field and asked his friend Eric Lawes, a retired gardener with a metal detector, to help find it.
Lawes found silver spoons, gold jewellery and coins. He did something that turns out to be the most consequential decision in the story: he stopped digging and called the police and the local archaeological unit, rather than excavating it himself.
Because the hoard was lifted properly by archaeologists the next day, still in its original packing, it became one of the most informative Roman finds ever made in Britain — the layout of the chest, the order of the objects, all intact.
Lawes and the landowner were paid £1.75 million under the Treasure Act, split between them. Lawes gave part of his share to the farmer. The hammer was found too, and is in the British Museum.