The near-mint condition Roman coins that were found on land in Sandridge in 2012 and later bought for £100,000 by St Albans Museum are to go on display this weekend (12).

The so-called ‘Sandridge Hoard’, made up of 159 gold coins, date back to the 4th century and were found by amateur metal-detectorist, Wesley Carrington, 15 minutes into his first outing with a metal detector.

A coroner declared the find ‘treasure trove’ in 2013 - as the coins were more than 300 years old - which allowed Verulamium Museum to purchase the coins.

David Thorold, a curator at the museum, said: “It’s lovely to be able to show them off and finally get them out.”

“It’s an unusually large find and we’ve managed to date all the coins as coming from between 404AD and 408AD and from five different Emperors.”

According to David, the coins are in better condition than many coins in circulation today, meaning that they were hardly used. They are likely to have been minted and collected together to offer some security to less valuable gold and silver coins.

He said: “If you had enough bronze coins you could exchange them for a silver coin; and if you had enough silver coins you could exchange them for a gold coin. You need gold coins in existence to ensure the value of other coins.”