MATT LAUER, co-host:
Have you ever dreamed of finding
buried treasure
? Well, the cachet******of gold one unlikely
treasure hunter
found is so big, so magnificent, so valuable that experts say they wept when they saw it.
NBC
's
Dawna Friesen
is in
London
with details on this.
Dawna
, good morning to you.
DAWNA FRIESEN reporting:
Good morning,
Matt.
You know, this is the kind of story
metal detector
enthusiasts live for. An unemployed man on welfare here in
England
bought a used
metal detector
for about $6 and then stumbled on the most amazing find of
Anglo-Saxon trevor -- treasure ever unearthed:
about 11 pounds of gold, about five pounds of silver. A find, say experts, of unparalleled beauty and thought to be worth millions. It is the stuff of
treasure hunters
' dreams. Unearthed over five days in July from a field in
central England
, about
1500
exquisitely crafted, jewel-encrusted pieces of
Anglo-Saxon
gold and silver; a horde like no other, found by an unemployed
metal detector
enthusiast named
Terry Herbert
.
Mr. TERRY HERBERT:
It's been more fun than winning the lottery. Stuff like this is still in the ground. Is there anything better than this to be found?
FRIESEN:
And for experts it's awe-inspiring.
Unidentified Man:
Never expected ever to see anything like this. It was unimaginable. It's a sword pommel inlaid with garnets.
FRIESEN:
Most of it is military in origin. This is a cheek piece of a
golden helmet
. This is an inscription from the
Bible
: "Rise up, oh Lord, and scatter your enemies."
Man:
The fragments we'll be able to analyze and look at, and in some cases, fit back together again to tell an incredible story.
FRIESEN:
A story of
England
in the seventh century and the
Anglo-Saxon
kingdom of
Mercia
. After
Terry Herbert
stumbled upon the first few hundred pieces, he called in archaeologists who kept turning up more, much of it very near the surface of a recently plowed field. It's what people with a passion for
treasure hunting
, like
Steve Brooker
, live for.
Mr. STEVE BROOKER:
It happens once in a
blue moon
, and this guy's just hit the jackpot. And what a find, you know. This guy's going to change history.
FRIESEN:
The desire now is not just to take things home and sort of keep them for yourself, but to show the world what's out there.
Mr. BROOKER:
Yeah, of course it is. Yeah.
FRIESEN:
Until now, the most famous find of
Anglo-Saxon
gold was
Sutton Hoo
in
Suffolk
,
England
, 70 years ago; treasures that are now in the
British Museum
. This find is much bigger and
Terry Herbert
is still overwhelmed by it.
Mr. HERBERT:
And if I knew anybody else who goes through something like this, they will understand how big a find this is.
FRIESEN:
A panel of experts will decide what it's worth and sell it to local museums.
Terry
and the landowner will split the money 50/50, which
almost certainly
means this treasure will turn them into millionaires. And the archaeologists involved have pored over every inch of the field where the treasure was found. They haven't found any trace of a grave or a building, so they don't know exactly why it was there. But one theory is that it may have been buried for safe keeping by its owner, maybe a king, because during the
Dark Ages England
was in a state of almost perpetual warfare. What we do know for sure is that whoever buried it back then certainly never went back to get it.
Matt
:
LAUER:
All right,
Dawna
, what a remarkable story.
Dawna Friesen
in
London
for us this morning. And now here's
Meredith
.
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