Hoard of Roman coins found during building work in Worcestershire

Dr Murray Andrews, lecturer in British archaeology at University College London, said the discovery was “remarkable”.

“It’s the most miraculous thing I’ve seen over the last 100 years,” he said.

“It’s an important piece of archaeology.

“It tells us about what was happening here 2000 years ago, when the Malvern hills were maybe the boundary of the Roman Empire.”

One expert theory is that the hoard represents the savings of a wealthy local farmer, who made his money by supplying the Roman army with grain and livestock.

The sheer number of coins meant that the hoard would have represented a “very considerable sum of cash” at the time it was buried, the expert said.

It is likely that the pot containing the coins was made at one of the pottery kilns based at the foot of the Malvern Hills.