The hoard was discovered in a field of a farm, about 1.5 miles southwest of the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, in November 1992. Peter Whatling, the tenant farmer, had lost a hammer and asked his friend Eric Lawes, a retired gardener and amateur metal detectorist, to help look for it.
While searching the field with his metal detector, Lawes discovered silver spoons, gold jewelery and numerous gold and silver coins. After retrieving a few items, he and Whatling notified the landowners and the police, without attempting to dig out any more objects.
The following day, a team of archaeologists from the Suffolk Archaeological Unit carried out an emergency excavation of the site. The entire hoard was excavated in a single day, with the removal of several large blocks of unbroken material for laboratory excavation.
The area within a radius of 98 feet from the find spot was searched using metal detectors. Peter Whatling's missing hammer was also recovered and donated to the British Museum.