I just read the best book and it is 100% true. It's called "The Mildenhall Treasure" by Roald Dahl. In 1942 in England, a man was plowing a field very deep. He had to plow it deep because the farmer wanted to grow sugar beets. He hit something and got down off the tractor to see if it was a tree root or buried stone, etc. He saw what looked like the edge of a very big plate, or platter, that was slightly green. He went back to get the man who had hired him, because Mr. Ford liked antiquities, and together they dug out with spades or shovels this huge silver platter that was about two feet in diameter. They knew that silver doesn't rust. But it had turned green. All together, they dug out 34 separate pieces -- solid silver platters, bowls, dishes, spoons, etc. Mr. Ford was a sharp one and he told the plowman "You don't want any of this old stuff, do you?" Mr. Ford was a bachelor and he took all the items back to his house and bought lots of silver polish and spent the next two years polishing all the items and they were beautiful: they had all kinds of mythological figures on them: Neptune, dolphins, Neptune's daughters, satyrs, and the name Christ on two of the spoons, along with two girls' names. They were special Christening spoons.
Anyway there was a law in England then that said whatever silver or gold treasure you unearth on your land is the property of the Crown. But if you declare to the authorities that you have found it, they will pay you for it, and then put it in the British Museum. Mr. Ford never told the authorities he had found it, but someone else found out about it and told the authorities. Because Mr. Ford never told the authorities, they wouldn't pay him the full value (perhaps half a million British pounds sterling, or a million pounds sterling). They did give Mr. Ford and the plowman one thousand pounds each. It is a fascinating story.
You can see the Mildenhall Treasure by going to
www.google.com, click on images, then type in "The Mildenhall Treasure."
Mr. Ford was not even the owner of the land. He had been hired to plow that field, but he was too busy right then to do it, so he hired the other man (who actually unearthed the stuff) to plow it.
The items were all Roman, dating to about the 3rd or 4th Century A.D., when Romans were in England. They think the Romans found out that wild Picts or Scots were coming to attack them, so they buried the silver to keep it safe.
Wow! What a fantastic story and it's all true!
