A TREASURE hunter stumbled across a tiny piece of Elizabethan history but didn't realise for three years.

Mark Lympany, of High Street, Wootton Basset, discovered a silver badge on a farm in Castle Eaton.

The piece has now been seized by the Crown and will be displayed in a museum.

An inquest was held yesterday to find out if the badge was in fact treasure.

Wiltshire coroner David Masters told the inquest the object must be at least ten per cent gold or silver and more than 300 years old to be treasure.

He was satisfied the badge met those requirements.

Mr Lympany, 43, has been a member of the Swindon Artefacts Club for ten years. The club often makes trips to sites around the town to see what they can find, making sure they have permission from the landowner first.

On September 30, 2001, Mr Lympany, a company director, was searching with his metal detector at a farm owned by John Messer.

"Six or seven of us were in the field," he said.

"I found the object just beneath the surface. I didn't think much of it at the time.

"If I find anything of interest I label it so I know where and when I found it.

"I knew it was silver but I thought it was modern."

In fact the badge dates back to the 16th or 17th century.

Mr Masters was concerned that the find had not been reported at the time but accepted that Mr Lympany did not realise its significance.

Mr Lympany took the badge to the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in Old Town for part of a display organised by Katie Hinds, a Wiltshire finds officer, last autumn.

She sent the badge to the British Museum in London for examination. The badge, made from thin sheet silver, measures just one centimetre. It is in the shape of a dog's face, which has distinctive eyes and a prominent nose.

Ms Hinds said: "It is a mount from some sort of clothing, maybe from a coat. It's purely decorative."

The badge has a small silver clip which would have attached it to clothing.

It now belongs to the Crown and will be displayed in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes.

Mr Lympany will be entitled to a reward for his find and he says he will share the money with Mr Messer.

The amount will depend on the badge's value, which is to be determined.

Mr Lympany said: "I don't think it's going to be of immense value, more of historic value."

Lyndsay Scanlan