Sixteen inches down on downland

An inquest was held by West Sussex Coroner Penelope Schofield at Worthing Town Hall on November 18th on sixteen Roman coins dating to between 260AD and 285AD discovered on downland in Storrington in June. They were found by Anthony Gill, a "metal detector enthusiast" from Thakeham who says he has been "detectoring" for more than 30 years. The coins were found buried 16 inches underground on downland at Storrington in June. That's 0.4 metres. It does not sound much like these coins were threatened by the plough. Neither does it seem from the newspaper report (which otherwise goes to excessive pains to point out how law abiding Mr Gill had been) that any archaeologists were present at the removal of these finds from this depth to determine what kind of context they had come from.