Cleaning up trash on the beach should be its own prize. But one picker found a real wooden treasure box and took it with him as a surprise.

Jenny Fitzgerald found a chest with about 100 old coins, gems, a rusty pocket watch, and jewelry in it.

‘I’ve never found anything like that on a beach. This was great, because Ms. Fitzgerald, who is 38, usually looks for sea glass and pearls.

She found the prize on March 20 between Kart Gap and Happiesburg with a group of people who were cleaning up a beach in North Norfolk. The 10-inch box was hidden at the bottom of a small hill by a sandbar.

Ms. Fitzgerald thinks that the chest is from a recent fall from a cliff. Jenny said that it was in good shape for its age, even though it was covered in sand.

James, her 40-year-old IT expert husband, helped her bring the 3-pound trunk back to Norwich, where Harrison, 6, and Darcy, 9, used old toothbrushes to clean out the sand.

They also found a metal match with Ernest’s name etched on it, an iron key, and a fancy perfume bottle.

The chest was given to the Norfolk County Council, and the council may give it to the sheriff to find out who owns it.

The finding Liaison Officer thinks this finding is more important for history, but my kids think they’ll get rich, Ms. Fitzgerald said.