Treasure hunters uncover 6th century coin Metal detectorists who struck gold: ‘It’s like winning lottery’

A metal detectorist who unearthed what looked like a chocolate coin in a field was stunned to discover it could be a gold pendant dating back to the 6th century.

Rachel Carter, 41, and her partner Ricky Schubert headed out to look for treasure after her friend, who owns a farm near Marshside, said they could scour her land.

It was a welcome invitation for Rachel, who wanted to get back into her hobby after taking a break to care for her sick mother.

“We went once and found nothing,” said Rachel, who lives in Whitstable. “Then just after Christmas - nearly 12 months to the day of my mum dying - we went back.”

Using her partner’s detector, Rachel scanned briefly over a section of earth before setting off towards another area on the far side of the field.

“But Ricky said ‘hang on, you said you wanted to try this part’ and he encouraged me to come back and have another look,” she explained.

“As soon as I put the detector down again I got a signal that was going mad, so I dug down and pulled out this pendant.

“It was only about five inches down, and was so perfect and gold and new-looking that at first I thought it was a bit of junk - you’d think you could unwrap it and eat the chocolate from inside. I went over to Ricky and said ‘do you reckon this is anything?’ and he was like ‘oh my God’.

“It’s the first bit of gold I’ve ever found - it still hasn’t sunk in.

“Some people in my club have been digging for 50 years and they say they’ve never seen anything like it.

“My mum always said to me ‘one day you’ll find something really special’. All I ever wanted was to find something gold and religious for her, because she was Catholic. And then I did. It’s like she sent this as a sign, saying ‘see? keep going’.

“Usually you find caps, coins, that sort of thing - but we’ve found absolutely nothing since. It’s really weird.”

The pendant has been reported to Kent Finds Liaison Officer.

“It would be lovely to see it in a museum, with my name underneath it,” said Rachel. “But to be honest, I’d rather keep it because it’s absolutely amazing - finding it was like winning the lottery, without having known what the ticket was worth.

“It would be great to find out more about the history of the area, and why the pendant came to be there.”

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