The singular biggest hoard of Celtic coins ever found is now thought to be two separate stashes that were buried together.
The Le Câtillon II hoard includes 70,000 gold and silver coins and 11 gold torques, or necklaces, and dates to the First Century AD.
Researchers believe that two distinct tribes created the currency, due to variations in the quality of their production as well as the metals used.
The collection, thought to be worth £10 million ($13 million), was brought to the island and buried – most likely to hide it from Roman invaders, experts say.
The singular biggest hoard of Celtic coins ever found is now thought to be two separate stashes that were buried together. The Le Câtillon II hoard, discovered, includes 70,000 gold and silver coins.
Researchers believe that two distinct tribes created the currency, due to variations in the quality of their production as well as the metals used. This discovery reveals a close-up of one of the gold coins unearthed.
Metal detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles, who spent 30 years looking for the hoard, finally uncovered it in 2012. Their haul came out of the ground in one large piece and has been disassembled and restored over the past three years.
Each item’s location has been recorded using laser peccary, and the preliminary data is revealing some unexpected results, researchers say.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr. Miles said: ‘What really surprised us was that everyone had thought this was just one large mass of continental coinage, what we were really surprised to find that it was in fact two distinctly different bodies of material.
‘We think that our coin hoard was brought to the island at about the time of the Roman invasion, possibly for safekeeping away from the Roman armies.
‘One had all the early issued coins from circa 80 BC with all the gold jewelry. All of these coins can be identified with the tribes in Brittany.’
The hoard was initially believed to belong entirely to the Coriosolitae, a Celtic tribe that lived in Britain. This image shows the second variant of coin uncovered.
Researchers now think that the second hoard could have been produced by tribes in western and lower Normandy. This image shows a close-up of that second variant.
In the second hoard, the absence of precious metal suggests that gold became less available, possibly as a result of Roman occupation. This image shows another closeup. The hoard was initially believed to belong entirely to the Coriosolitae, a Celtic tribe living in Brittany.
Researchers now think that the second hoard could have been produced by tribes in western and lower Normandy. The first, earlier hoard contains gold coins and jewelry as well as precious metal ingots, which may have been brought to Jersey from Dinan in Brittany.
In the second hoard, the absence of precious metal suggests that gold became less available, possibly as a result of Roman occupation. The two stashes could have been hidden together as Roman legions advanced through what is now France in the first century BC.
Metal detectorists also uncovered 11 gold torques (necklaces), as well as the haul, which dates to the First Century AD.
The collection, valued at £10 million ($13 million), was bought by the island and buried, most likely to hide it from Roman invaders, experts say. This image shows the necklaces after restoration.
Mr. Mills added: ‘The other part of the hoard contains a large mass of silver coins which are of lower quality and manufactured at a later date.
‘There were no Roman coins found in our hoard which possibly means our coins were buried in Jersey after the Roman invasion and before whatever reason there was for it being buried in one pit.
‘The provenance of gold objects in this part suggests that they were in circulation before Caesar’s conquest of Gaul which began in 58 BC.
Due to the following years of tribal suppression it is likely that the wealth of the region that was not seized by the Romans would have been removed from the territory and hidden for safe-keeping.
Detective Reg Mead and Richard Miles spent decades searching for a field in Jersey after hearing rumors that a farmer had discovered silver coins while working on his land. This image from 2012 shows them finding part of the hoard.
Metal detector Reg Mead (center), backed by Black, Blue Polo shirt), watches as archaeologicalists unearth the Celtic coin hoard back in 2012. 
The two stashes could have been hidden together as Roman legions advanced through what is now France in the first century BC. Researcher Neil Mahrer, from Jersey Heritage, examines part of the hoard.
The provenance of gold objects in this part suggests that they were in circulation before Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, which began in 58 BC. A closeup of examinations of the hoard.