Couple Finds Over $800,000 in Rare Coins During Kitchen Renovation – GNT NEWS

A couple in England got the surprise of their lives when they discovered a stash of rare coins under their kitchen floorboards during renovation project.

Gregory Edmund, auctioneer and UK coin specialist at Spink and Son, confirmed to TODAY that the coins were discovered by a couple from North Yorkshire, who initially thought they had come across a piece of electrical cable while working on their 18th-century house in 2019.

“Why they decided to touch it who knows, but when they did, they realized it was a golden disc and there were hundreds of them underneath!” Edmunds told TODAY via email.

The rare coin draw is recent sold at auction for $852,380 versus the provisional sales estimate of $231,390. According to The Yorkshire Post, the coins are associated with the Hull merchant family, the Maisters. The coins date from 1610 to 1727, from the reign of King James I to King George I. The period covers the time of Sarah Maister’s marriage to Joseph Fearnley. According to The sunFernley died in 1725 and Maister remained in the area until his death in 1745.

More than 200 years later, a married couple from Yorkshire discovered hidden treasure.

Edmund said it was a unique opportunity to be involved in the auction, which included 372 global registrars and dozens of successful bidders.

“It’s a rare privilege for an auctioneer to win a white glove sale (100% sold), but when the story of Joseph and Sarah Fernley and their millions of misers came to my attention in 2019, I just knew it was a story that needed to be told,” he said. he. “The anonymous inventors were absolutely stunned by the result. He surpassed all preconceived expectations and set dozens of world records along the way.”

Edmund said buyers flocked from all over the world, bidding on coins for the privilege of owning a piece of their 292-year-old treasure.

“The sale was unique in many ways,” he said. “The story of the coins, the method of discovery and the rare opportunity to buy them at auction.”

“I’ve never seen a response to an auction like that before,” he said, adding that the sale was three times his provisional estimate.

Some of the featured lots include:

• Lot 5 — A rare Scottish issue, James VI and I gold six pound coin — sold for $6,100. (Pre-sale estimate $1,100)
• Lot 101 — Remarkable Mint Error — Charles II, Guinea, where CAROLUS is misspelled CRAOLVS — sold for $10,850. (Resale Estimate $1,100)
• Lot 164 — Queen Anne, Guinea, 1705, struck before the Union of England and Scotland — sold for $14,920. (Resale Estimate $3,400)
• Lot 241 — An incredible mint error, a coin without a head but with two tails. A George I ‘Brokage’ Guinea, 1720, sold for $72,860. (Resale Estimate $4,500)

“This latest coin is a new world record for any brockage error coin in any country ever sold at auction, surpassing a US gold dollar sold in Texas for $54,625 in October 2011,” Edmund said.

He explained that while it is common for rare coins to be sold at auction, the unique history of these coins and their incredible discovery made the sale extraordinary. Still, he hopes that won’t lead to people renovating their homes in the hopes of making a similar discovery.

“I hope people think before they rip up their floors,” he said.

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