Father-of-three Jason Willis, 38, lives in Norwich and enjoys going metal detecting with eight of his friends each Sunday.
Over the past six years Jason has travelled from Wiltshire to Cambridgeshire to Oxfordshire in search of treasure, but it was Lincolnshire where he hit gold.
Jason was detecting with his trusty Minelab Etrac on a Sunday in April 2019 at a field in Sutton St Edmund, in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire.
A few inches down, he spotted something that looked interesting. After washing off the mud he realised he was holding a tiny golden cross. It has since been described as the Throckenholt Cross. The early medieval gold cross pendant measures 31mm in length and dates from the 11th to 12th century.
The rare find will be offered for sale by Dix Noonan Webb in its auction of jewellery, watches and objects of vertu on Tuesday, March 15 at its Mayfair sale room on Bolton Street in London.
Jason said: “My friends and I have had some good finds over the years, but when I came upon the cross and washed it off, I knew it was something special and by the shining yellow-colour, I knew it was gold!
“I handed it in to our local finds liaison officer and after two years, going through the treasure process, the cross was returned to me and I was told that I could now sell it.
