The cache of coins - Roman solidi dating back to the 4 th century - is estimated to be worth £100,000, or about $160,000 in U.S. dollars.
According to the Helmel Gazette newspaper, the man - whose name has not been made public - reportedly bought a beginner's metal detector from a shop in the Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, area. A few weeks later, the man returned to the shop, showed the shopkeepers 40 gold coins, and asked them: "What do I do with this?"
The shop's owners, David Sewell and Mark Becher, were stunned. They told the novice treasure hunter to notify authorities of his discovery, the paper added. When he obtained the required permits, Sewell, Becher and others returned with the man to the discovery site.
"We went with them and took with us a couple of slightly more potent machines and we pulled 119 more coins out of the ground," Sewell told the Daily Mail newspaper. "These are 22 carat gold, they haven't got any damage and they came out of the ground looking like the day they were made."
