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| - Fact Check: British man finding ancient Roman treasure in his first try is old news
A photo of a British man with 10,000 Roman coins is going viral with the claim that this discovery was made recently in England's Shropshire.
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India Today Fact Check
The incident happened nearly 12 years ago and the viral post is copied from a news report dated September 9, 2009.
The story of a British man finding a rare haul of 10,000 Roman coins that are believed to have been underground for 1,700 years is viral on social media. Shared elaborately, the post says amateur Nick Davies made the discovery at a farmer's field near Shrewsbury in England's Shropshire.
"The haul could be put on display at Shrewsbury's new £10million heritage center, it was revealed today," claims the post.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. Nick Davies' discovery, which is now known as the famous Shrewsbury Hoard, was discovered over a decade ago in 2009.
AFWA Probe
The image used along with the post shows a smiling man (Nick was then 30) alongside a broken pot and a large number of coins. A reverse search showed the image has been in circulation for several years. This proved that the photo is not from a recent development as claimed in the post.
Among the results were a DailyMail report published on September 9, 2009, that carried the same photo with the caption, "Strike it lucky: Nick Davies found this amazing haul of 10,000 Roman coins on his first-ever treasure hunt."
This is the first sentence of the viral post as well.
We also identified that the rest of the post has also been copied from the same news report.
Using a keyword search, we also found more reports about the incident which confirmed that Nick's wonder digging is from 2009.
This proved that though the information mentioned is correct, the viral post is based on an incident that happened over 12 years ago.
According to a report published by BBC in October 2011, the Treasure Valuation Committee was to decide how the value of the hoard should be split between the owner of the land and Nick. This story can be read here.
A further search on Facebook showed that the story of Nick Davies's excavation is often shared as a recent story among groups and pages of history and archaeological enthusiasts.
However, it is clear beyond doubt that the incident in which the British man discovered a rare haul of 10,000 Roman coins originally happened over a decade ago in 2009.
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