Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

A London worker has found this stunning piece of 1,000-year-old Anglo-Saxon jewellery on the banks of the River Thames during his lunch break.

Mateusz Adamczyk works near Battersea Park and was walking along the Thames when he spotted the tiny piece of gold in an area of rocks.

Adamczyk, originally from Poland, picked up the gold which expert now say comes from the late Anglo-Saxon period approximately 1,000 years ago.

The worker sent pictures of the piece, which features tiny ringlets, to the British Museum and the museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme assessed the piece.

They found that the piece, which measures slightly over 1 centimetre in length, appears genuine and they will now examine it further.

The piece of jewellery belongs to the Crown but the finder will be allowed to claim a reward equivalent to 100 percent of the piece’s value in six months.

A piece of Anglo-Saxon jewellery which was found by a student in 2014 in Norwich was given a value of 145,000 GBP.

Anglo-Saxon jewellery is known for its use of gold which brought it admiration across Europe.

Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who lived in Great Britain from the 5th century. They were made up of Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe.

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