West Berks finds deemed to be treasure by coroner

Experts from the British Museum said that the items could be declared as treasure because of their silver content and their age.
The items included two fragmented Edwardian silver coins that were found in a field in Weston by Rodney Goodrum in April 2011.
In his statement, Mr Goodrum said that he unearthed the finds when he was out with the Wessex Metal Detecting Club.
The field had recently been ploughed and Mr Goodrum said that the broken coins could have been disturbed in the ploughing process.
Another item, a silver ring with quatrefoilshaped bezel setting, was found in January 2012 at land in Theale by James Mather.
In a statement, an expert from the British Museum, Emma Traherne, said that this type of ring was well known and that a number of them had been recorded under the Treasure Act, which states that any find more than 300 years old, or having a gold or silver content exceeding 10 per cent, are deemed treasure and must be reported to the coroner. In this respect, both items were deemed to be treasure by Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford.