A hobbyist unearthed 4.5 kilos of Late Iron Age coins in Sysmä, marking the biggest find in Finland to date.Image: Esko Tikkala / Lahden museotYle News7.9. 14:34Metal-detecting enthusiast Kalle Lappinen has unearthed Finland's largest known Viking-era silver hoard to date in Sysmä, in the Päijät-Häme region.Lappinen discovered thousands of silver coins in the ground on 3 September. Esko Tikkala, an archaeologist with the Lahti City Museums, examined the find the following day.The museum says the discovery is the largest known coin hoard from Finland dating to the Late Iron Age.Alongside the coins, the site yielded a silver bracelet and other silver objects. The finds had been stored in two birch bark containers, buried just under half a metre deep between stones. The containers were about 12 metres apart.The silver weighs around 4.5 kilos. The coins have not yet been cleaned or separated, so their exact number and weight will be confirmed later. Further research will also establish their precise age.Lappinen described the moment of discovery as surprising."At first, there was a sense of disbelief. You dig up such a huge number of signals from metal deposits, so when you finally find a real object, it always comes as a bit of a surprise."Most signals picked up by a metal detector turn out to be nothing."Ninety-nine percent of the finds are rubbish or metal deposits," he said.Until now, Finland's largest known Viking-era coin hoard was a find from Nousiainen. It weighed just over two kilos and contained around 1,700 coins.