A metal detectorist who found England’s ‘first-ever gold coin’ is celebrating after it sold for a world record of £648,000.
Michael Leigh-Mallory unearthed the coin on his first metal detecting outing in 10 years on a farmland in Hemyock, Devon, last September.
The King Henry III penny, struck in about 1257 by William of Gloucester, with gold imported from North Africa, measures just under an inch in diameter.
There are just eight of the coins in existence – with most of them in museums – and this one is thought to be the first to be found in 260 years.
The discoverer was completely unaware of the coin’s incredible rarity until he posted a picture of it on Facebook and it was spotted by a specialist at Spink auctioneers, London.
‘Not only does this now stand as the most valuable single coin find in British history, but also the most valuable Medieval English coin ever sold at auction,’ said Gregory Edmund, a specialist at Spink & Son.
Experts say that the Henry III penny shows the first ‘true’ portrait of an English king upon his throne since the time of William the Conqueror.
The coin sold for a hammer price of £540,000, with extra fees taking the final figure paid by a private British buyer to £648,000. The winning bidder intends to loan the coin to a museum or institution.
It is a world record for a Henry III coin, and also the most valuable Medieval English coin ever sold at auction. The finder will split the proceeds with the landowner.
The coin, which is 21mm in diameter, displays the portrait of the bearded and crowned Henry III upon his thrown on the Great Pavement in Westminster Abbey, with a long cross, roses and pellets on the reverse.
Some 52,000 of the coins were minted at twice the weight of a silver penny and valued at 20 pence, which equates to £60 in today’s money.
The other surviving examples are in the British Museum in London, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and private collections.
‘The coin was found in an unappealing field and could quite easily have never been recovered. Now it is protected for future generations to enjoy and it is truly humbling that I was its finder,’ said the finder Leigh-Mallory, who works as an ecologist, ahead of the sale.
But it’s not all about the money for Leigh-Mallory who is very passionate about British history.
‘I have just been to Westminster Abbey to say thank you to Henry – if he had never have minted this coin then I would never have found it. I am so pleased that the coin will stay in the UK because the collector is loaning it to a museum,’ he said.
Under the UK’s 1996 Treasure Act, finders of potential treasure are obligated to report their discoveries to the local coroner within a timeframe of 14 days. In this case, the finder and the landowner are expected to split the auction money between themselves.
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