Ellerby: Gold coins found hidden under kitchen floor sell for £754,000

A treasure trove of more than 260 gold coins discovered by a couple beneath their kitchen floor during renovations has sold for £754,000 at auction.

The collection, found under a home in Ellerby, East Yorkshire in 2019, was spotted inside a pot hidden underneath concrete and 18th Century floorboards.

The coins, dating from 1610-1727, belonged to the Fernley-Maisters, a Hull family involved in Baltic trading.

The auctioneer called the final sale price "absolutely extraordinary".

The coins, whose provisional estimate of between £200,000-£250,000 was tripled after the story gained global attention, were eventually sold to dozens of buyers in individual lots by Spink & Son auctioneers in Bloomsbury, London.

The auction house, which said the collection represented approximately £100,000 in today's money, called it "one of the largest hoards of 18th Century English gold coins ever found in Britain".

Interest had come from private collectors from around the world, including in America, Europe, Australia, China and Japan, it said.

Auctioneer Gregory Edmund called the treasure trove "120 years of English history hidden in a pot the same size as a soda can".

The identity of the couple who found the hoard remains undisclosed.

Mr Edmund said: "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.

"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."

The London auction, featuring phone and online bidders, reached a "hammer price" of £628,000 for all the lots, with the final purchase price including fees calculated at £754,000.

An imperfectly minted coin from 1720 fetched the highest individual price at £62,400, Spink & Son said.

Auctioneer Mr Edmund described the bidding as "electrifying" during the sale of the most sought-after coins, with dozens of successful bidders.

"I will never see an auction like this again," he added.

Spink & Son said Joseph Fernley and Sarah Maister married in 1694 and lived in Ellerby, with Joseph dying in 1725, aged 76.

Sarah died aged 80 in 1745, with the "family line dying out soon after", the firm added.

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