A “stunning” hoard of gold artefacts has been discovered in Shropshire.

A cache of gold items has been discovered in an upright piano in Shropshire after its new owners tried to have the instrument tuned. According to a statement from the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, the finds – which were quickly reported by the piano’s new owners – are “highly unusual in nature being substantially made of gold and appear to have been deliberately hidden within the last 110 years.”

The artefacts are understood to be coins believed to date from before 1900. Peter Reavill, a Finds Liaison Officer with the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, told reporters: “We can’t say what it is exactly because we are trying to track down the potential true owners. The current owners did not know what to do but they came to the museum and they laid it all out on the table.”

According to Reavill, the recent history of the piano – a Broadwood & Sons of London, sold to a music establishment in 1906 – has been traced to around 1983, when it was purchased by a family in the Saffron Walden area. The piano’s history between 1906 and 1983...