Three metal detecting friends have unearthed their “bucket list” find of a lifetime in a farmer’s field.

The trio were recently searching land near Maidstone when one of their devices was triggered.

It led to the discovery of some scattered Roman coins, with further digging uncovering a hoard of about 400.

While the circa 1,800-year-old base metal coins are not thought to have any great monetary value, they do present significant historical interest.

But retired policeman Steve Dean, 65, from Whitstable, who found the first few coins, says discovering such a hoard is on the bucket list of any metal detectorist.

“We were trying a new bit of land with the farmer’s permission to see if it was worth revisiting with our metal detecting club, Swale Search and Recovery,” he said.

“We’d been there a few hours with nothing of interest when I got a bleep.

“I was a little away from my friends and dug about and started to find a few coins. I then called them over and said I thought I was onto something and they helped dig out about 100 coins.

“It was then that we saw the top of a broken pottery urn filled with coins and knew we were onto something special because it was clearly a hoard which is on the bucket list of any detectorist.”

Steve says that he and his friends, Glenn Church from Whitstable and Ed Donovan from Faversham, decided they should call an archaeologist to complete the dig.

Within a little over an hour, Paul-Samual Armour from the Sandgate-based Isle Heritage CIC was on the scene to complete the excavation and recording of the find.

The coins are now being assessed at the British Museum.

“I was a very exciting find for all of us,” said Steve.

“I’m not sure what will ultimately happen to the coins now. They may be offered to a museum with any value divided between ourselves and the farmer. But we don’t expect to get rich.”