

Detectorists Paul Adams and Andy Sampson with their Suffolk find 
Detectorists Paul Adams and Andy Sampson with their Suffolk find  Credit: Andy Sampson/BNPS

When metal detectorist Paul Adams stumbled on a hoard of gold coins he believed his luck was finally in.

In all the weeks he had spent carefully scanning fields with his metal detector he had never before found such a treasure.


Pretty soon they started planning how to spend the proceeds of their discovery.


During filming of a scene from the first episode of the last series, the replica coins were shown first being buried in a clay Roman pot before being brought to the surface by a tractor ploughing a field 2,000 years later.

Unfortunately for Mr Adams, 58, and Mr Samson, 54, when it came to clearing the set the production company left behind some of the coins, raising the pair’s hopes when they came across them a few weeks later.

"I think we are officially the world's unluckiest metal detectorists. Our story would make a TV series of its own,” said Mr Sampson.

"After we found them I was paying off my mortgage and buying a sports car in my head. We thought we were looking at the real McCoy. Now I look at them and want to cry."

Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook) in The Detectorists Credit: Chris Harris/BBC

The pair, who work together delivering oxygen to medical patients, began detectoring a year ago and had been given permission to sweep the field in Suffolk where Andy had previously found a Roman coin.

As they began searching an area they could see had recently been ploughed Mr Adams’ machine started pinging.

"I heard Paul shout out 'yes!'” said Mr Sampson, from Ipswich. "I looked up to see him dancing around. He came floating towards me screaming 'Roman gold, Roman gold'.

"I ran over to him and was amazed when he showed me a small Roman gold coin in the palm of his hand.

"We carried on looking and our metal detectors were working overtime, picking out gold coin after gold coin along a 30ft long furrow.

"We couldn't believe our luck. There were shards of Roman pottery too, which made sense because the Romans buried them in pots. Everything was as it should be.


"We weren't sure how much they might be worth but we had six Emperor Nero coins and we knew they were worth £26,500 each."

The pair, by their own admission “too excited to think straight”, went home and planned to inform the landowner and relevant authorities the next day.

But before doing so they showed their find to a neighbour who has been a detectorist for 40 years and is a member of the Suffolk Archaeological Survey.

Paul Adam's with his treasure hunting kit Credit: Andy Sampson/BNPS

Mr Sampson said: "He couldn't believe his eyes when I poured them out on the table. But as soon as he picked one up he said 'these are wrong, they're not real'."

The neighbour informed the pair the coins were in all likelihood fake, but Mr Sampson refused to believe him, arguing there was no reason for 50 fake coins to be placed a recently ploughed field.

However, when he told his wife Sam, who works in the estate office of the farm where they were found, she recalled that the The Detectorists had recently been filmed there.

A call to the production company quickly established that they had put replica gold coins in the ground for a scene.

Instead of a hoard worth tens of thousands the replicas turned out to be worth a mere £5 each.

"When my wife told me about The Detectorists filming there an alarm bell went off in my head,” said Mr Sampson. “She spoke to the location manager and he confirmed they were props. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "

The coins were buried in a scene in the first episode of the last series of The Detectorists. Two treasure hunters thought they had struck it rich when they found the 'hoard'  Credit: BNPS

Mackenzie Crook, 46, who wrote, directed and starred in Detectorists, said he was 'horrified' to learn that the pair thought they had uncovered a Roman hoard.

The Bafta winner said the crew picked up as many replica coins as they could after filming. He said he intended to go back to look for more but was beaten to it by the duo.

Mr Crook said: "Unfortunately, that day we didn't have metal detectors with us and I intended to go back to find any strays.

"But freshly ploughed fields are magnets to detectorists and the next day I was horrified to hear that Paul and Andy had got there first and found what they thought was a hoard. 

"As a detectorist myself, I'd like to assure these gentlemen that I was gutted that I might have contributed to their disappointment. I hope they continue searching and I hope they find their real gold soon."