‘I owe it to the kids’: coin found by detectorist dad sold for £648,000
A metal detectorist who gave up his hobby when he started a family, only to return to it when his children were old enough to nag him into taking them out detecting with him, has been rewarded with one of the most extraordinary finds – a fine example of England’s oldest gold coin, which has sold for a record-breaking £648,000 at auction.
Michael Leigh-Mallory, 52, found the Henry III gold penny buried 10cm deep on farmland in the Devon village of Hemyock shortly after taking up his old hobby again. Not realising what it was, he posted a picture of the coin on social media, where it was spotted by the auctioneers Spink in London.
He will split the proceeds of the find with the landowner and plans to use his windfall to help fund the future education of his children ...
The penny found by Leigh-Mallory was struck in about 1257 by the king’s goldsmith, William of Gloucester, with precious metal imported from north Africa.
The coin features a portrait of the bearded and crowned Henry III on his throne, and about 52,000 of them were minted.
It became apparent they were financially unviable because the value of the coin was less than its weight in gold and almost all were melted down. Leigh-Mallory’s is only the eighth known example. ...
Gregory Edmund, a senior numismatist at Spink, said: “Not only does this stand as the most valuable single coin find in British history, but also the most valuable medieval English coin ever sold at auction.”
It achieved a hammer price of £540,000, with extra fees taking the final figure to £648,000. ...