Cousins found haul within minutes of starting their hunt

The coins, dating from 31 BC to AD 224, have been bought by Somerset County Museum.

The money to purchase them has been donated by Somerset County Council, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the National Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Mr Elliot's family had been farming the land as tenants for 36 years until they bought it in January 1998 - allowing them to use metal detectors there for the first time.

The cousins discovered the first coin at a gateway, just minutes after starting their hunt with the metal detector.

Milk buckets

Thirty minutes later, after discovering a scattering of other coins, they turned up a huge hoard of thousands of similar coins just under the surface.

They used milking buckets to collect their historic find.

The hoard included two coins of Manlia Scantilla, wife of the emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled for a few weeks in AD 193 during a period of civil war.

These were the first known coins of this type from a UK hoard.

Somerset County Museum officer, Stephen Minnitt, said he is still trying to raise �3,000 to pay for a display case for the coins.