UK couple strike gold under their kitchen floor
A UK couple have made a surprising discovery while renovating their home, with their find selling for £754,000 ($NZ 1.5 million) at auction.
After ripping up the existing floorboards and jackhammering through the concrete in the kitchen of their East Yorkshire home, the couple uncovered a small urn containing 260 ancient coins.
The BBC reported that the coins dated from 1610 to 1727 and belonged to the Fernley-Maisters, a family who traded through the Baltic region.
Auction house Spink & Son said Joseph Fernley and Sarah Maister were married in 1694 and lived in Ellerby.
Joseph died in 1796 aged 76, and Sarah died aged 80 in 1745, with the family line “dying out soon after” according to the auction house.
Auctioneer Gregory Edmund told the outlet that the sale sum was an “absolutely extraordinary” result and said the costly urn was no larger than a can of soft drink.
“Picture the scene – you’re choosing to re-lay your uneven kitchen floor, you put a pick-axe through the concrete and just beneath you see a tiny sliver of gold,” he said.
“At the time, you think it must just be a bit of electrical cable, but you find it’s a gold round disc and beneath it there are hundreds more.
“I will never see an auction like this again.”
The coins were found during renovation works in an East Yorkshire home (left) before being sold at auction. Images: Spink & Son
Though the couple made the discovery in 2019, they have only just sent the coins to auction.
Spink & Son said the collecction was “one of the largest hoards of 18th Century English gold coins ever found in Britain”.
The coins are only represent about £100,000 in today’s currency, but they attracted such a high price due to their rarity, which only skyrocketed after the find gained global attention and became the subject of media coverage.
Selling in lots, the highest individual price for one of the coins was a hefty £62,400 ($NZ 124,200), paid for a 1720 coin described by the auction house as “imperfect”.
Mr Edmund described the bidding as “electrifying”, with the auction attracting the interest of collectors around the world.
Image: Spink & Son