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The ruling by coroner Andrew Haigh means the the collection of at least 1,345 items will now be valued by a committee of experts before being offered for sale.

A treasure trove inquest heard that the haul was found by metal detecting enthusiast Terry Herbert just below the surface of a farmer's field at an undisclosed site near Burntwood, in south Staffordshire, in July.

Now Mr Herbert and the unidentified land owner are set to earn themselves a large reward for the trove which experts predict could redefine perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England.

The find is said to be bigger than that at Sutton Hoo and as important as finding a new Lindisfarne Gospels or Book of Kells.

Ruling the 'Staffordshire Hoard' cache of gold and silver items - much of it taken from weaponry - to be treasure, Mr Haigh said: "This is a magnificent find, both in terms of its content and its likely history."

Dr Roger Bland, head of portable antiquities and treasure at the British Museum, told the inquest in Cannock that the significance of the find was "only beginning to dawn" on the small number of experts who have examined it.

He said the hoard would be worth a "seven-figure sum". "I can't say anything other than we expect it to be a seven-figure sum," he said.

Mr Bland told the coroner: "It is at least as significant as any of the major discoveries of this period that have been made in the past."

Conceding that it may be difficult to establish the story which lies behind the astonishing find, Mr Bland added: "It is a fantastically important discovery.

"It is assumed that the items were buried by their owners at a time of danger with the intention of later coming back and recovering them."

Mr Bland said the hoard - thought to date back to between 675 and 725AD - was unearthed in what was once the Kingdom of Mercia.

"I think wealth of this kind must have belonged to a king but we cannot say that for absolute certain," the expert told Mr Haigh.

A total of 1,345 items have been examined by experts, although the list includes 56 clods of earth which have been X-rayed and are known to contain further metal artefacts, meaning the total number of items is likely to rise to around 1,500.

More than 30 other objects found along with the hoard have been deemed to be of modern date and were not found to be treasure.

Mr Bland confirmed that copper alloy, garnets and glass objects were discovered at the undisclosed site, but the "great majority" of the treasure was gold or silver.

The expert added: "Our best guess is that it was buried some time between the late seventh century and the early eighth century.

"We hope that further research will enable us to be a little more precise."

Experts have so far established that there are at least 650 items of gold in the haul, weighing more than 5kgs (11lb), and 530 silver objects totalling more than 1kg (2.2lb) in weight.

"That in itself is an enormous quantity of precious metal," Mr Bland said.

"It's bigger than any other hoard of precious metal from the Anglo-Saxon period by quite a large margin."

Mr Bland said the Staffordshire hoard was quite different to the Sutton Hoo burial site, which was uncovered in Suffolk in 1939.

He said: "It's a hoard of objects and it's going to be hard to try and uncover the story that might lie behind it.

"At the moment all we can really do is speculate and hope that more detailed study will help us to pin it down more precisely, but it is a hugely important discovery."

Mr Haigh heard just 30 minutes of evidence before deciding that the haul should be formally classed as treasure.

Expressing hopes that the collection will eventually be bought by a museum and go on display in Britain, preferably in the West Midlands region, Mr Haigh said: "This is a massive and fantastic find.

"These seem to be largely male items, probably military-linked items. Having heard the evidence, it is clear to me... that these 1,345 items should be considered to be treasure."

Mr Herbert and the farmer plan to split their reward. The treasure hunter says he will spend his money on a bungalow.

"This is what metal detectorists dream of, finding stuff like this," he said. "But the vast amount there is is just unbelievable."

He added: "It's been more fun than winning the lottery. People laugh at metal detectorists. I've had people go past and go 'beep beep, he's after pennies.'

"Well, no, we are out there to find this kind of stuff and it is out there."