A hoard of Roman coins discovered in St Albans has gone on display in the British Museum.

The 159 coins, known as solidus, were found by the council’s museum service on private land in the north of the district at the beginning on this month.

The fourth century coins went on display on Tuesday, December 4 in the Citi Money Galley, which focuses on treasure and hoarding.

They are expected to remain on show until early January.

Henry Flynn, a museum assistant who has worked on the display, said: “If you look closely at the coins in the case you will see that many of them are still muddy.

“They are all legible and can be identified, but the traces of dirt nicely show that this is a very recent find that came from the ground.

“Many people don’t realise how much work goes into treasure at the British Museum, particularly the conservation work, so hopefully this changing display will be of great interest to the public.”

The coins, which were one of the biggest collections to ever be found in the UK, were minted during the final period of Roman control in Britain.

They were found scattered across a large area and experts believe they were disturbed during the last couple of hundred years by quarrying or ploughing.

They depict the emperors Gratian, Valentinian, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius.