British Couple Finds Rare 17th Century Gold Coins Under Kitchen Floor — Sells for £754,000

A lucky British couple that found 264 gold coins under their kitchen floor has recently sold the trove for over £754,000 ($853,000 USD) through an auction.

The unidentified couple was renovating their 18th-century detached house in Ellerby, East Yorkshire — near Hull — in 2019 and thought they had uncovered some electrical wires after lifting up their floor. Upon further inspection, they discovered hundreds of gold coins inside a stoneware cup about the size of a coke can, according to the Sun.

The coins were dated from 1610 to 1727 — during the reigns of King James I to King George I — and were also connected to the Maister family — a Hull merchant family that became successful through trading in the Baltic. The family imported and exported iron ore, timber, and coal and later became Whig (liberal) Members of Parliament in the early 18th century.

The coins are believed to have been collected during the marriage of Joseph Fernley and Sarah Maister. Joseph died in 1725, while Sarah remained a widow in Ellerby until her death in 1745 at 80.

While British law prohibits finders from keeping many kinds of treasure with hoards reverting to the state and a reward being paid to the discoverers, this may not have applied in this case. The finders will get at least some of the proceeds of the sale, if not all.

After the couple reached out to Spink and Son, a London-based auctioneering group, to evaluate the coins, its estimated value was initially between £200,000 and £250,000. When the trove was up for auction earlier in October, the couple and Spink and Son made international headlines when it sold for more than triple the estimation.

Gregory Edmund, a coin specialist with Spink and Son, was astonished when the coins sold for £754,320 at the phone and online auction, which included 372 global registrants. Some of the coins were imperfectly minted — and consequently more collectable — including one coin from 1720 that was the highest seller at £62,400, BBC reported.

While the Yorkshire couple wished to remain anonymous, Edmund knew the story of the 17th-century coins and the Maister family connection was too good to keep a secret.

“It is a rare privilege for an auctioneer to be graced with a white glove sale (100% sold), but when the story of Joseph and Sarah Fernley and their misers millions came to my attention back in 2019, I just knew the story had to be told,” Edmund told NBC News.

“The anonymous finders were absolutely staggered by the result. It dwarfed any pre-conceived expectations and set dozens of world records along the way,” he added.

The gold coin trove was reportedly one of the largest archaeological discoveries in British history.

You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.