[1] It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".

[6][7]: 9  The average quality of the workmanship is extremely high and especially remarkable in view of the large number of individual objects, such as swords and a helmet, from which many of the fragments in the hoard came.

This excludes items such as the gold horse's head that were in one of the 33 soil blocks that had not been examined at the time of publication of these figures.

Elisabeth Okasha notes that the closest parallel to the script used is the inscription in the lead plate from Flixborough, dated to the 8th or 9th century.

[20] The hoard was deposited in a remote area, just south of the Roman Watling Street, some 4 kilometres (2 mi) west of Letocetum, at the time part of the extra-parochial area of Ogley Hay (now part of the Hammerwich parish), in the highland separating the Pencersæte and Tomsæte within the kingdom of Mercia.

The apparent selection of "martial" artefacts, especially the decoration of swords, does not suggest that the hoard consists simply of loot.

At this point Herbert contacted Duncan Slarke, the finds liaison officer for the Staffordshire and West Midlands Portable Antiquities Scheme.

[1] A final geophysical survey using specialist equipment provided by the Home Office did not suggest any further artefacts remained to be found.

An official website set up to showcase finds from the Hoard received over 10 million views in the first week after the announcement.

Key items and numerous smaller pieces were then taken to the British Museum, London, where cataloguing, and some initial cleaning and conservation work commenced.

[11] In late March 2010, a team of archaeologists carried out a follow-up excavation on the site, digging 100 metres (110 yd) of trenches and pits in the field.

According to Staffordshire county archaeologist Stephen Dean, there was no more gold or treasure to recover from the site, and the aim of the new excavation was to look for dating and environmental evidence.

[31] In December 2012, it was announced that 91 additional items of gold and silver metalwork had been found in the field where the Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in 2009.

The finds were made in November 2012 when archaeologists and metal detectorists from Archaeology Warwickshire, working for Staffordshire County Council and English Heritage, visited the field after it had been ploughed.

Although these items were found by archaeologists, the money raised by their sale will be shared between Herbert and Johnson as they were responsible for the original discovery of the hoard.

If the sum had not been raised by 17 April 2010, the hoard might have been sold on the open market and the unique collection permanently broken up.

[40] On 23 March 2010 it was announced that the sum had been raised three weeks before the deadline, after a grant of £1.285 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) was added to the money already collected from individuals, councils, and other groups and associations.

Eighty items from the hoard, including a gold horse's head that has not previously been exhibited, went on display at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent from 13 February 2010 until 7 March 2010.

[45] Items from the hoard were on display at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., United States, from 29 October 2011 to 4 March 2012.

[51] A similar show, titled Secrets of the Saxon Gold, was aired on 22 April 2012 as a Time Team special, presented by Tony Robinson.

[54][3] The first phase of the research project ran from 2012 to 2014 and was mainly focused on cleaning and cataloguing the objects, as well as conducting a programme of scientific analysis at the British Museum.