Every year, dozens of metal detectorists go out into the British countryside on the hunt for buried treasure. Some are luckier than others.
British law requires that if anyone discovers objects that are more than 300 years old and made from gold or silver, they must report them to their local finds liaison officers. Once their finds are declared treasure by a coroner, many will go into museums' collections.
Two of the nation's finds liaison officers in East Anglia have been looking back at the objects that fired their imagination in 2024.
Dr Geake singled out a "beautifully-made" medieval gold brooch, 17mm (0.6in) in diameter, discovered in Norfolk. She was intrigued by the motto etched on its circumference, which is hard to interpret.
She said she believed it was written in a code that perhaps only its wearer might have understood. "Oh and I love the buttery colour of these pure gold things, it's just gorgeous."
Dr Geake also singled out another item, this time a silver disc that. "It looks slightly amateurish, I like the way letters started and then got smaller towards the edge," said Dr Geake about a medieval silver box pendant dating to between 1400 and 1500. Its inscription reads ave, the Latin for hail, which is the first word of the Roman Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary.
"It also feels very individual and you can imagine the person who owned it saying their Hail Marys to it - like a rosary - she might have looked at it and used it every day," the historian said.
When a 39mm (1.5in) gold conical find first arrived on Miss Rogerson's desk she initially thought it was probably Tudor (1485-1603), certainly post-medieval.
"It wasn't until I sat down to do the research that I came across something almost identical in the British Museum and realised it is a Hercules club pendant or earring and a lot older than I'd thought," she said. In fact, it's Romano-British and 1,000 years older than she originally thought. "To us he's just a character from fiction, but to its owner, he was a significant part of their pagan belief."
Another item that crossed her desk was an exquisite, although sadly squashed, Anglo-Saxon ring from the 7th century. "The gold work from this period just fascinates me, you can see how intricate the decoration was and how much skill was required to create such things," said Miss Rogerson.
The Treasure Valuation Committee is currently assessing, external the ring's value - determining how money will be shared by the finder and landowner - and when that is complete, Epping Forest Museum in Essex hopes to add it to its collection.
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