A person who searches for treasures with a malfunctioning metal detector found the biggest golden nugget ever found in England.
Richard Brock, 67, found the nugget worth £30,000 while exploring in Shropshire Hills.
This happened even though he had to use an old machine that wasn't working properly.
Despite using a faulty metal detector, Richard, who has been detecting metals for 35 years, made the biggest discovery of his life and uncovered a 64.8g golden nugget.
Named 'Hiro’s Nugget', the metal lump is now expected to sell for at least £30,000 at auction.
It's believed to be the biggest find of its kind on English soil because the only previous larger examples in Britain were found in Wales and Scotland.
The Douglas Nugget found in Perthshire weighed 85.7g, another from the shores of Anglesey weighed 97.12g and The Reunion Nugget found in Scotland in 2019 weighed 121.3g.
Richard, a father of four, said: 'I have been detecting since 1989 and decided to join the trip, so I drove three-and-a-half hours to Shropshire and arrived about an hour late, fearing I had missed the action.
'At first I only found a few rusty old tent pegs with this backup detector that had a fading screen display.
But after only 20 minutes of scanning the ground, I found this nugget buried about five or six inches deep in the ground.'
Richard displayed his discoveries to his fellow detectorists, prompting everyone to frantically search the area.
'I was perhaps a bit too honest and started showing people, and then all of a sudden I had swarms of other detectorists scanning the same area,' Richard said.
'I couldn’t believe it – I turned up late, was only there a matter of minutes and this treasure hunting expedition was supposed to last all day.
I couldn’t look for anything else as I had the land owner, the organizer of the dig and every other detectorist around me trying to get a look at this nugget.'
It remains a mystery as to why the gold nugget was hidden in the Shopshire Hills, near Much Wenlock.
But areas like the Wenlock Edge are ancient landscapes that were once under a prehistoric ocean.
There is also a large amount of rock that originally came from Wales – a country known to be rich in gold.
Richard's discovery was made on a site believed to have been an old track or road with railway lines running through, containing stone possibly distributed from Wales.
He said: 'Upon doing some research, we could only find bigger ones like this in Wales and Scotland.
The last one claimed to be bigger in England was 54 grams, but mine is 64.8 grams, so we're pretty confident it's the biggest found on English soil.
‘I spoke to the finds liaison officer and they gave me permission to do as I pleased with it, so I decided to attempt selling it at auction.
‘I plan to share the proceeds with the land owner. I found it last May but only recently realized it could be the largest – it's truly amazing.’
Auctioneers Mullock Jones is selling the nugget in a timed auction that started last weekend and continues until April 1.
Ben Jones, from the auctioneers, commented: ‘We anticipate a lot of interest in this item. It's a rare chance to own a breathtaking golden nugget.
‘We are presenting it as a single item for online bidders from Friday March 15 to 6pm on 1st April.’
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