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Kid’s ‘pirate treasure’ turns out to be a rare gold coin worth ... a lot of money!
British boy’s collection turns out a minted rarity from seized circa-1702 Spanish booty
A London-area auction house sold one of Britain’s rarest coins on Wednesday, a coveted Queen Anne “Vigo” 5-guinea gold piece.
With an auction price of £225,000, or about $279,000, the coin is one of only 20 minted from the gold the British seized from Franco-Spanish treasure ships in Vigo Bay, northern Spain, in 1702. It is one of only 15 known to have survived and only the sixth example offered for sale in the past 50 years, said the auction house, Bonington’s.
Four generations of the same family have been in possession of this Vigo, mixed in with other coins and trinkets. Pre-auction estimates put the coin’s value at between $240,000 and $300,000.
“The coin was consigned to us by a gentleman from Hertfordshire whose grandfather had given it to him many years ago when he was a young boy. However, he had no idea what it was worth until recently, when he showed it to our coin specialist,” said Boningtons spokesman Luke Bodalbhai.
“My granddad travelled all over the world during his working life and collected many coins from the various countries where he had been,” the consignor, not named, is quoted as having said. “As a boy, I was into pirate treasure, so he gave me bags of coins to play with. As time passed, these coins went back into bags and boxes and were forgotten about. Then, after my granddad passed away, I rediscovered the coins and recalled how much I had enjoyed them as a boy. So I gave them to my own son to play with, including the Queen Anne Vigo 5-guinea. He kept it in his treasure box and has been playing ‘pirate’ with it just as I did, all those years ago.”
The Vigo coins were made from treasure that the British fleet seized from Franco-Spanish ships returning from America following the Brits’ unsuccessful attempt to capture Cadiz. Struck in 1703, the coins were intended to divert attention from the failed campaign at Cadiz, highlighting instead the haul of treasure they had captured on their way home, according to a history supplied by the auction house. The treasure was received at the Royal Mint by the Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton, better known, of course, for the work he had done earlier in his life, as a physicist who explored the principles of gravity.
The coin is expected to break a Bonington’s house record set earlier this year with the sale of a painting by Sir Winston Churchill.
Read more here
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/real-life-pirate-treasure-queen-anne-vigo-gold-coin-could-fetch-300000-2016-11-15
All the best Jan
Did you read it?
Kid’s ‘pirate treasure’ turns out to be a rare gold coin worth ... a lot of money!
British boy’s collection turns out a minted rarity from seized circa-1702 Spanish booty
The owner presented a handful of mixed coins to auction house Boningtons' coin specialist, Gregory Tong,
having no idea that the gold coin shown at lower right was a genuine treasure.
having no idea that the gold coin shown at lower right was a genuine treasure.
A London-area auction house sold one of Britain’s rarest coins on Wednesday, a coveted Queen Anne “Vigo” 5-guinea gold piece.
With an auction price of £225,000, or about $279,000, the coin is one of only 20 minted from the gold the British seized from Franco-Spanish treasure ships in Vigo Bay, northern Spain, in 1702. It is one of only 15 known to have survived and only the sixth example offered for sale in the past 50 years, said the auction house, Bonington’s.
Four generations of the same family have been in possession of this Vigo, mixed in with other coins and trinkets. Pre-auction estimates put the coin’s value at between $240,000 and $300,000.
“The coin was consigned to us by a gentleman from Hertfordshire whose grandfather had given it to him many years ago when he was a young boy. However, he had no idea what it was worth until recently, when he showed it to our coin specialist,” said Boningtons spokesman Luke Bodalbhai.
“My granddad travelled all over the world during his working life and collected many coins from the various countries where he had been,” the consignor, not named, is quoted as having said. “As a boy, I was into pirate treasure, so he gave me bags of coins to play with. As time passed, these coins went back into bags and boxes and were forgotten about. Then, after my granddad passed away, I rediscovered the coins and recalled how much I had enjoyed them as a boy. So I gave them to my own son to play with, including the Queen Anne Vigo 5-guinea. He kept it in his treasure box and has been playing ‘pirate’ with it just as I did, all those years ago.”
The Vigo coins were made from treasure that the British fleet seized from Franco-Spanish ships returning from America following the Brits’ unsuccessful attempt to capture Cadiz. Struck in 1703, the coins were intended to divert attention from the failed campaign at Cadiz, highlighting instead the haul of treasure they had captured on their way home, according to a history supplied by the auction house. The treasure was received at the Royal Mint by the Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton, better known, of course, for the work he had done earlier in his life, as a physicist who explored the principles of gravity.
The coin is expected to break a Bonington’s house record set earlier this year with the sale of a painting by Sir Winston Churchill.
Read more here
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/real-life-pirate-treasure-queen-anne-vigo-gold-coin-could-fetch-300000-2016-11-15
All the best Jan
