Couple find gold coins worth $302k renovating kitchen of N. Yorkshire home-Update $1.3mil. richer!
Goldbully
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Love stories like this one. Wish it was me! 😊
The find of over 260 coins is one of the largest on archaeological record from Britain, and certainly for the 18th Century period. Credit: Spink
A couple quite literally struck gold while renovating their kitchen after they discovered a hoard of rare coins, worth £250,000, buried under the floor.
The couple, from Ellerby in North Yorkshire, thought they'd hit an electrical cable beneath the concrete floor, but it turned out to be a cup filled to the brim with over 260 gold coins.
The oldest dates from the reign of James I and the coins cover the Stuart period right up to the dying days of George I.
The cup's handle was broken and it's thought this is why it was used as a storage vessel for the coins. Credit: Spink
The collection has been valued at £250,000 and will be sold by auctioneers Spink in October.
The couple, who want to remain anonymous, reported their find to the auctioneers shortly after they made the discovery in 2019.
Coins can be declared treasure and become crown property if two or more are found and are at least 300 years old.
As the youngest coin was only 292 years old when the couple found it, the entire collection was ruled as being less than three centuries old.
This meant the couple were declared the official owners of the hoard and could put it up for sale.
The coin hoard in situ. The couple were putting a new floor in when they made the find. Credit: Spink
The original owners of the coins are thought to have been Joseph and Sarah Fernley-Maisters, who married in 1694.
The Maisters were perhaps the most influential merchant family in Hull from the late 16th to 18th centuries.
They traded iron ore, timber and coal, and several generations of the family served as Members of Parliament in the early 1700s.
Auctioneer Gregory Edmund from Spink said: "It is a wonderful and truly unexpected discovery from so unassuming a find location.
"It is an enormous privilege to share in this wonderful find and explore this hoard for the benefit of future generations."
Comments
Super cool!
Coin Photographer.
Glad to hear they won’t be losing it to the crown under the treasure act. Good thing the floor remodel didn’t wait another decade.
Thank goodness the coins were less than 300 years old. Great story. Hope someone in the family enjoys the hobby.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Now I want to k ow how many they really found. Is it a coincidence that the oldest coin was just under the limit? 🤔
Wow!!! This is the type of find that keeps so many of us hunting and believing in hidden treasures. Cheers, RickO
If it were me and the youngest coin was 301-years old you'd better believe I'd be buying one or two pieces that were 290 or so years old and getting them real dirty to add to that pile before announcing the discovery!
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Collectors on this side of the pond simply have no clue as to the rarity of George I and George II gold and especially the silver crowns. Even the half crowns from George I are tough... PCGS has yet to grade an MS example of a George I half crown. Interesting that no George I crowns were included in the hoard...thanks for sharing
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Laws like this really suck. The government or some museum have no more right to finds like this than any other third party.
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just out of curiosity, it is customary to bust through concrete foundations to re-do kitchens on your side of the pond?
i thought WE were crazy about kitchen renovations.
Laws like that only force people to become dishonest. Don't get me wrong, if you are not the property owner then you should only get a finder's fee. A property owner should maintain ownership of anything in or on his property. Mineral rights are a different story and only affect natural minerals not buried treasure, to the best of my knowledge.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Wow lucky find. I renovated my fist house in 1990. While removing a wall to make the living room larger I found a few newspapers from the 1930's. Too bad it wasn't $20 St Gaudend's.
MIKE B.
Does that sound right? 260 pre 1700 British gold coins with only an average value of $1,200 and a total value of $302,000?
This one is a brockage.
Amazing!
There are a few known brockages on English Half Sovereigns and Sovereigns, but extremely rare on earlier denominations.
Another one of those “why not me???”
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
I wish we had an attic, or a basement, or a garage, or a kitchen....
Tim
So are these coins guineas and they were later replaced by the sovereign?
They sure made some cool coins back in the day.
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good eyes. something was calling to me in the image but i didn't slow down enough to spot that OBVIOUS amazing error.
certainly NO coincidence it was the tip of the pyramid.
i/we will be keeping an eye out to see how long it takes before it appears in the mint error publication!
Wow!
I've renovated dozens of properties over the years. I've found a few wheat cents. One of my guys found a G (at best) 1940-D quarter and gave it to me.
I posted the dozens of bottles I privy dug at the small 1900s hospital I renovated in 2010, including some dating to the civil war.
This is another bottle discovery. These came from the crawl space of a 1890s home two years ago next weekend. We'd recovered several broken bottles, which prompted me to go way, way back into the crawl space where I discovered about 30 more, including a full case of unbroken bottles. Some with remnants of labels attached. From a brewery about an hour and a half from here. The embossed "tombstone" label on the bottles themselves, and the "MADE UNDER THE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT JUNE 30TH 1906" text on the paper label, suggests these are circa 1910.
--Severian the Lame
That’s my dream. Retire and relocate to my ancestral home of Aberdeenshire Scotland (clan Gordon) and go metal detecting as often as I possibly can. I would travel all over England, Scotland, and Wales. There’s a lot of treasure just waiting to be unearthed. One day…….
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.
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As a side note…clan Gordon fought alongside William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Now that's a nice find! Would love to see the whole lot.
It's my understand that even if it was declared treasure, the crown would still have the option of purchasing it, or releasing it back to the owners. They wouldn't simply confiscate it. Granted, I believe if they offer to buy it, it's at their experts' opinions as to the value. At least that's my understanding, could be wrong.
I actually found an old coin when we renovated our basement in 2016. The house was built in 1960, and we bought it from an elderly couple who probably had not had kids there in 30-40 years or so. This was tucked behind an old baseboard. I almost threw it away thinking it was an electrical box punch out (I had some electrical work done recently), but noticed it had writing on it. I cleaned it up and it turns out it has some pretty toning on it as well! OK, might not be worth a lot, but it was still fun to find.
When I was working as a "Siding Specialist" we always joked about hitting the jackpot in a wall somewhere when we were residing and how we would handle it. We were convinced that a house built in 1915 and had 4 layers of old siding on it would have a jackpot. all we found were some very old valentines notes a shoe and 2 pristine beer bottles from the 40s. Looks like I should have been doing flooring!
Before: Cedar shakes on top of T111, on top of redwood shiplap, and on the second and third ish level there was a layer of aluminum between the cedar shakes and the T111
After: Hardy board siding on top of plywood
A realtor in Denver who sold my parents" home after they passed told me a story involving found treasure.
He said that in the early 1980s he represented a buyer who purchased an old fixer upper home in northeast Denver. The home was sold for about $60,000.00.
After the sale closed the buyer took posession of the home and started to remodel it. During the demo part of the remodel the buyer found hidden behind a wall in the house a box. Inside the box was old US currency totaling over $60,000.
With this find the buyer recouped his purchase price for the house😊
@LanceNewmanOCC
I suspect I am on the same side of the pond as you. And even on our side of the pond and depending on geographic location, there are homes that have crawl spaces or basements so compromising a concrete foundation in connection with a kitchen remodel is not an ordinary thing... maybe in newer construction in California, AZ and NV it happens with greater frequency.
The real story... at least from my perspective... is that coinage from the reign of George I and George II are just overlooked and significantly underappreciated in terms of dates surviving in a high state of preservation
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Just looking at some of these... I see Queen Ann and William III seems those fall outside what was contemplated. But that really leads to the more proactive question. These coins were on private property and may not have been in the ground whereby the Crown would even have a viable claim. If the coins were found within the structure... and on private property... I would assert the Crown simply has no right and no claim to assert
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
The guinea was the main British gold coin during the time covered by this hoard. The modern sovereign was introduced in 1817 as part of significant coinage reform that brought British coinage into the modern era. The guinea had a value of 21 shillings while the sovereign was worth 20 shillings.
Here is a nice example of the 1817 sovereign.
That's a beautiful coin and thanks for the history lesson.
And the tax bite on the sale will be?
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"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
zero, had I found it...
A cool story and find, reminds me somewhat of the Saddle Ridge hoard. I'm seriously looking at bidding on one of them. I'm thinking these coins will be sold raw?
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
Is someone suggesting that the finders try to sell the coins themselves to avoid taxes?
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Why the reference to the youngest coin being 292 years old when the trigger for the law is 2 or more being 300 or more years old? Seems the relevant question would be the oldest, not the youngest, coins found???
So you just need to make sure the "youngest" coin is less than 300 years old to avoid the government's claim? So a hoard of 300+ year old coins is subject to government claim, but a hoard of 300+ year old coins that happens to be found with a 299 year old coin or two is free and clear of a government claim?
The more absurd example would be a hoard of Roman era coins being found with one or two 292 year old coins. Would that example be free and clear of government claim or subject to government claim?
What am I missing?
Indian Head $10 Gold Date Set Album
PR from the UK Mirror.
Yorkshire couple set to be £250,000 richer after finding gold coins underneath kitchen floor
The coins were buried under six inches of concrete as the owners, who have lived in the detached property for over 10 years, believed they had found some ordinary electric cable.
The pair wanted a professional opinion on their find and quickly contacted London auctioneers Spink & Son who visited their house and provided expert analysis on their discovery.
After some research, it was revealed the coins belonged to a wealthy and connected merchant family from Hull, the Fernley-Maisters.
The Fernley-Maisters were importers and exporters of timber, coal and iron ore with latter generations serving as Members of Parliament in the early 1700s.
The coins were collected in the lifetime of Joseph Fernley and his wife Sarah Maister.
Joseph died in 1725 and his widow Sarah died aged 80 in 1745.
The auction includes this rare James I Scotch double-crown Image:Spink/BNPS
The coins were initially discovered in July 2019 and can now officially go to auction.
It is thought the coins have a combined total estimate of £250,000.
Auctioneer Gregory Edmund said: "This is a fascinating and highly important discovery. It is extraordinarily rare for hoards of English gold coins to ever come onto the marketplace.
"This find of over 260 coins is also one of the largest on archaeological record from Britain.
"It was an entirely serendipitous discovery. The owners were relaying the floor of their house and found a pot about the size of a Diet Coke can, full of gold.
They've never picked up a metal detector in their life. They were just relaying a floor and thought it was an electrical cable at first.
A 'pattern bust' James I laurel was found in amongst the buried treasure Image: Spink/BNPS
"I rushed up to see them in North Yorkshire a few days after and there were 264 gold coins in this cup - it is unfathomable, I have no idea how they managed to fit so many in that pot.
"The coins date from 1610 to 1727, which is an usually long period for a hoard.
"It also raises the question why has someone decided to bury a lot of coins at the beginning of the 18th century, when they had banks and bank notes - all the things that meant hoarding shouldn't have happened any more.
"Its contents are hardly 'mindblowing' - they simply reflect the £50 and £100 coins of day-to-day exchange buried and mysteriously never recovered by their wealthy owner.
"They're not mint perfect coins, they are coins that have had a hard life.
This rare Charles II guinea with spelling mistake is expected to fetch £1,500 at auction Image: Spink/BNPS
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/yorkshire-couple-set-250000-richer-27876733
The trigger for the law is "2 or more being 300 or more years old and none being less than 300 years old", which is why the reference to the youngest coin being 292 years old. The youngest coin in the lot would define how old the hoard would be at a maximum.
Glad the owners got to keep the hoard. Blows my mind that anyone that finds these hoards decides to make them public. My lips would be sealed. RGDS!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Laws don’t force people to become dishonest.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
i presume, knowing virtually nothing about these coins, that CRAOLVS is supposed to be CAROLVS?
that is one heck of an error. considering the letters involved, it ALMOST looks like they could have been restamped and looked not too awful. certainly better than CRAO. lol
Yes.
It happens. Here's a Mexican 8 reales from 1287, if the coin is to be believed...
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LOL nice one
Wish it was mine.
I am actually OK with those treasure laws. The Finder gets credit and the monetary value of the find. Then the find gets put in a museum for all to enjoy.
Smithsonian Magazine.
The stoneware vessel was about the size of a soda can. Courtesy of Spink & Son / Gregory Edmund
The site of the discovery under an anonymous couple's kitchen floor in Ellerby Courtesy of Spink & Son / Gregory
Some of the gold coins Courtesy of Spink & Son / Gregory Edmund
Story in link........
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/uk-couple-finds-rare-gold-coins-during-home-renovations-180980709/
I read a source that claimed that the government did keep one of the coins, a Brazilian piece that was notable mostly for the fact that it had circulated in England at such an early date.
Couple who found old gold coins under their kitchen floor are $1.3 million richer.......
A couple who found a jar of old gold coins under their kitchen floor are £754,000 ($1.3 million) richer after selling the surprise treasure trove at auction.
The home owners in England were laying new flooring, ripping up the existing floorboards and jackhammering through the concrete beneath, when they struck a bounty: 260 ancient coins in a small urn.
The coins unearthed in the dirt below the East Yorkshire property were dated from 1610 to 1727 and belonged to a mercantile family who traded through the Baltic region, according to the BBC.
Auctioneer Gregory Edmund told the BBC the sale sum was an “absolutely extraordinary” result.
He said the urn holding the coins was no larger than a lemonade can.
Continues in link... https://www.smh.com.au/property/living/couple-who-found-old-gold-coins-under-their-kitchen-floor-are-1-3-million-richer-20221011-p5bos3.html
My first thought was to wonder what train robbery these came from. Don’t blame me; the British are the ones with the affinity for train heist movies.
The $1.3M number is from an Australian article, and represents the Australian dollar. They are $.842M USD richer.
Thank for the clarification. $842k nice payday. 😉
Edited to add: we got some smart people on the forum.