Coins found in Whitwell fetch more than £6,000 at auction

A collection of five Iron Age gold coins found in a field in Derbyshire has fetched more than £6,000 at auction.

The coins, which date from about 60 – 20BC and are known as staters, were discovered in a field near Whitwell in September 2023 by David McIntyre Haigh, and were later declared as treasure.

They went under the hammer at auctioneer Noonans in Mayfair on Tuesday, and were sold for a total of £6,050

Alice Cullen, coin specialist at Noonans, said the find was “particularly special and unusual”.

Mr Haigh started metal detecting in 2010, with his wife Judy joining him two years later.

He said he had spent more than 10 years searching agricultural land in north Nottinghamshire and in September 2023 he returned to a field where he had previously found five gold staters in 2019.

After finding three coins, Mr Haigh said he decided to head back to his car at the top of the field, where he heard the “faintest of signals”.

“At first I lost the signal, then using my probe I located a strong signal,” he said.

“Hands shaking, I gently wiped the earth off the round disc in my hand and revealed a bright, shining 2,000-year-old superb gold stater with a Celtic horse and pelletal sun design.

“Marking the spot with a marker, I trudged back to my jeep and rested for half an hour.

“I just couldn’t believe it – I’d struck lucky again. I was even too tired to do the ‘gold dance’ favoured by detectorists whenever they find gold.”

Mr Haigh added that he “unbelievably” found a further four gold coins of similar design in the field that afternoon.