A mum who always hoped of finding treasure has had her dream realised - after she dug up a hoard of ancient coins. Jennie Fitzgerald, 38, spotted the domed lid of a wooden chest poking out of the sand as she picked up litter on a beach in Norfolk earlier this month.
She used her hands to dig down and hauled out the padlocked prize, which was about the size of a shoe box. Jennie, who is mum to Harrison, nine, and Darcey, six, then lugged the chest a mile-and-a-half back along the coast to meet her IT consultant husband James, 40.
Back at their caravan in Sea Palling, the family pulled off the wood from the bottom of the box - and discovered 108 coins inside. Jennie, from Norwich, who says she is "buzzing", thinks they are mainly Victorian pennies, and a few medieval groats.
She said: "I never dreamed of finding something like this. I'm always on the beach with my eyes down and hoped to find a couple of coins, but this is on another level.
"I keep pinching myself. I don't think I've fully taken it in yet. It's amazing - it's a once-in-a-lifetime find. What are the chances of that? It's lucky really, I could so easily have gone past it. I'm buzzing."
Jennie had been out with her litter-grabbers and bucket for an hour on March 20 before she spied the casket on the cliff top between Cart Gap and Happisburgh. She was initially worried she had interfered with someone's time capsule or geocaching - a treasure-hunting game.
But, after taking it home, Jennie and her children brushed away at the box with toothbrushes on the kitchen table. They could not open the massive padlock but wood started coming away at the base and coins began to slide out, so they went at it with a screwdriver.
The treasure includes pieces of either cut glass or gem stones, plus a pocket watch, a signet ring, a giant old-fashioned key and a fob with 'Earnest' engraved on it. Jennie, who works as a medical secretary, described the box as made of wood and probably iron, with a hide lining which she thinks is intended to be waterproof.
Marking on the padlock say 'VR' with a picture of a crown, so she thinks it could be Victorian. Jennie has reported the find to the local liaison officer, and has to take the treasure chest to a museum and inform the land owner of the beach where she found it.
She said: "First I just liked the shape of this piece of wood in the sand and it drew me in. Then I heaved it out and realised it was like a proper pirate treasure chest.
"It's a solid box and the padlock is still intact: someone really didn't want us to get in. It's so exciting all of us thinking about the story behind it, and who Earnest was. Harrison is so excited thinking we're going to be rich. It's incredible."
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