Treasure
hunter strikes gold with discovery of 700-year-old
Henry III coin:
A detectorist has uncovered just the eighth known example of
England’s “first
gold coinage”, with the piece expected to sell at
auction for nearly half a million pounds.
The
Henry III coin, minted in 1257, owes its value both to its
rarity and the unique
portrait of the monarch on its
obverse side.
The coin carries a pre-sale estimate of £400,000 but past examples have sold for more than £500,000. It is the first of its kind found in more than 260 years.
It was found by an anonymous treasure
hunter on
his first detecting trip in a decade, near Hemyock, Devon.
The finder put it on Facebook, not knowing its true value before it was spotted by an expert.
Gregory Edmund, of the auctioneer
Spink, told The Telegraph he spotted the post and “immediately told the finder to take it down because I said you're going to be inundated with every
man and
his dog to try trying to buy this off you for a fraction of what it's worth”.
Mr Edmund and the detectorist took the coin to be assessed by the British Museum, which confirmed its significance. As it is only a single coin and not
part of a larger find, it was not covered by the Treasurers
Act, meaning the finder was entitled to keep it.
The coin was the first gold coin minted in
England since before the Norman Conquest. However, it proved deeply unpopular and of little wider use.
Henry III, who ordered the coins to be minted,
had originally been saving gold for a campaign to place
his son on the throne of the Kingdom of
Sicily.
However, the growing threat of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, led
Henry to instead use
his personal treasure to fund an expensive
military campaign across Offa’s Dyke.
Its use by the
King to pay
his many bills and creditors may explain why this example ended up in Devon.
The
portrait of
Henry III on the coin’s
obverse was “radically new” according to Prof Carpenter. Rather than simply showing the
head of the
king, it depicted him “sitting elegantly on
his throne” with
his sceptre and
orb.
UPDATE - the coin sold at
auction for £648,000 or $873,000.