TV historian Dan Snow has today launched a £30,000 appeal to ensure a valuable collection of Roman coins goes on show in Hampshire.

The 1,600 coins were found buried in a field near Warborne Farm in the New Forest two years ago.

Some have gone to the award-winning St Barbe Museum in Lymington but others are at the British Museum in London.

St Barbe needs tens of thousands of pounds to buy the whole collection and put it on display to the public.

Dan, who lives in the New Forest, visited Warborne Farm this afternoon to launch the appeal - and revealed he had already donated £500 to the fund.

The popular presenter was greeted by scores of local schoolchildren dressed as Romans.

He said: "The coins were buried 2,000 years ago, possibly for safe keeping. Whoever buried them either forgot about them or never came back to collect them, which is lucky for us.

"We want them to stay in the New Forest so that everyone can see them."

A St Barbe spokesman warned that the coins would either be sold or kept in storage in London unless the appeal succeeded.