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As far as buried treasures go, a U.K. couple unearthed a splendid one — and they didn’t have to leave home to find it.
The anonymous couple discovered a hoard of 264 gold coins dated from 1610 to 1727 hidden beneath their home’s floor worth as much as $288,000. The coins are now set for auction in October.
A British couple discovered a secret stash of gold coins, tightly packed inside a salt-glazed earthenware cup buried under their home’s floors.
Photo courtesy of Spink and Sons, London
For generations, the treasure was hidden underneath an 18th-century townhouse in Ellerby, a village in North Yorkshire, England. Then, in 2019, the homeowners of 10 years redid their kitchen floor, hitting what they thought was an electrical cable beneath the concrete.
Instead, it was the secret stash of gold coins, tightly packed inside a salt-glazed earthenware cup, about the size of a soda can, buried beneath the home, ITV News reported.
The well-worn coins could be worth nearly $300,000 at an October auction.
Photo courtesy of Spink and Sons, London
“It was an entirely serendipitous discovery,” Gregory Edmund, of London auctioneers Spink and Son, said in a statement. “As a coin specialist with many years of experience, I cannot recall a similar discovery in living memory.”
The auction house, which is billing the trove as one of the biggest coin finds in British archaeological history, will offer the collection in a dedicated Ellerby hoard sale on Friday, October 7.
A British couple discovered this hoard of golden coins buried under their kitchen floor.
A British couple discovered this hoard of golden coins buried under their kitchen floor.
The coins, which show heavy signs of daily use, are dated from 1610 to 1727. Because the youngest coin was less than 300 years old, the hoard does not qualify as “treasure” under British law, allowing the couple to keep it. The coins, which cover the reign of James I through that of King George I, were originally worth. between £50 and £100.
This rare Charles II guinea with spelling mistake was discovered under the floor of a British home. It is expected to fetch $1,725 at auction.
Photo courtesy of Spink and Sons, London
Today, the rarest is a 1720 George I guinea that—due to a minting error—does not feature the king’s head, with two “tails” sides instead. It could bring in as much as $4,600. A 1675 Charles II guinea, meanwhile, which misspells his Latin name as “CRAOLVS” instead of “CAROLVS,” carries a presale estimate of $1,725.
The collection is believed to originally belong to Joseph and Sarah Fernley-Maisters, a couple from an influential mercantile family, who married in 1694 and died in 1725 and 1745, respectively. The family made their money trading in iron ore, timber and coal.
Because of a minting error, this 1720 George I guinea has two reverse sides. It could be the most valuable of the coins discovered beneath a kitchen floor in the U.K. It could bring in as much as $4,600.
Photo courtesy of Spink and Sons, London
“Joseph and Sarah clearly distrusted the newly-formed Bank of England, the ‘banknote’ and even the gold coinage of their day because they [chose] to hold onto so many coins dating to the English Civil War and beforehand,” Edmund said. “Why they never recovered the coins when they were really easy to find just beneath original 18th-century floorboards is an even bigger mystery, but it is one hell of a piggy bank.”
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