The buried Herefordshire Hort, surrounded by betrayal and greed

This is a story of betrayal, secrecy and greed, which led to two friends ended up in prison and a puzzle about buried coins.

Let me bring them back by April 2022 – an estimation of gold and silver is laid out on a small table in a back office in London.

For centuries, the coins and jewelry were undisturbed and buried by a Viking warrior in the ninth century in the landscape of Herfordshire.

I spent years after his trip from a hole in the ground to the edge of the criminal underworld.

This story is completely designed in the strange but real criminal podcast via BBC sounds.

However, let me explain how it is to come with precious, historical artifacts that are sought by criminals and historians alike.

In this small office in London I wanted to wear a real treasure – gold jewelry that was made for a king, a queen or a noble.

Most people who put the ring on their fingers or bracelets around their wrists have been dead for more than 1,000 years.

The Herefordshire treasure is great, as it became known, and was rated with more than £ 3 million.

Under the treasure there is a huge golden ring, a gold bracelet with a dragon head clasp, a cerstal rock trailer, a silver minimum and hundreds of silver coins.

The people who discovered it could indeed have become very wealthy, but instead they are in prison.

However, only 31 out of an estimated 300 coins of discovery were obtained.

So the big question is, where is the rest of the hoard?

The gold and silver were hidden underground for about 11 centuries when the Welsh metal detectorist George Powell and Layton Davies discovered it in a field near Leominster in June 2015.

It is believed that the after -school care center was taken from the Anglo -Saxon Vikings from the Anglo -Saxon Vikings and buried to secure around 878 AD.

Powell and Davies from Pontypridd should have legally declared it.

If you had done this, you could have become very wealthy men.

Instead, they held it, sold it to dealers and ended up in prison.

I've been a reporter for 25 years, but this is one of the most fascinating stories I have ever reported.

I had to be silent over the years, while the police investigations continued.

I received anonymous tips and one of the criminals even sent me text messages from prison.

Three years after the trial in April 2022, I was behind the scenes of the British Museum, where the after -school care was examined and valued.

The jewelry is beautiful, but it is the coins that have changed what we know about the history of England.

One of them is double -headed and shows two rulers of England in the ninth century.

Alfred the Great who ruled Wessex is on the one hand and Ceolwulf II from Mercia is on the other.

Alfred the big one is famous, we know a lot about him, but Ceolwulf II is a mystery, he seems to disappear without a trace at about AD879.

Historians believe that he was written by Alfred's followers from history.

Thanks to the double coin, we now know that Ceolwulf was as important as Alfred that they ruled side by side for many years.

The jewelry was carefully wrapped in Tissue paper, but was stored in a plastic cake box.

Despite the rather secular container, I held my breath when it was discovered.

It definitely has the WoW factor. It looks like the buried treasure in children's stories, shiny gold and gemstones.

When I slipped the ring on my finger, I was amazed at how heavy and big it was.

This is a ring that is to be worn over the glove of a king or a noble and so that the people were in front of the indented.

I was wearing a blue nitrile glove, as you can see in hospitals, but it still felt fantastic.

What the experts still still didn't know is who it belonged to – and who stolen it and buried it in the ground all these years ago.

And what about the rest of the coins?

The police believe that they are in the hands of organized crime gangs around the world, so that the hunt for the lack of treasure continues.