This is 10-year-old Fionntan Hughes of Northern Ireland who was lucky enough to get hold of a metal detector for his birthday in July, he was eager to try it—and the first time he did, he found a buried treasure—or more accurately, the remains of a 300-year-old sword buried on the banks of the River Blackwater near his family home.
Philip Spooner, an antique arms dealer with 30 years’ experience, told the BBC he believes the sword’s ornate design and “plum pudding” pommel points to it most likely having belonged to an English officer. “[It’s] a basket hilt-type sword as used by English officers and dragoons from about 1720 to 1780, or it could be a Scottish basket hilt of about 1700 to 1850.”
Once the Hughes family realized what they found, they reached out to the National Museum’s Northern Ireland archaeology curator Greer Ramsey to better identify the sword. “The last thing I want is for it to be left rusting away in my garage, deteriorating by the day,” the elder Hughes said.
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