Rare 200-year-old half cent sells for £225,700

[Neil]

I know I posted this last year, but its gone to auction now and sold for a wadge! - Neil


A rare 200-year-old coin which was hidden for half a century in a tiny cabinet made of matchboxes has sold for £225,700 - a staggering 72 million times its face value.

The U.S. copper half cent was minted in 1796 and was one of just 1,400 ever struck. It was picked out of a hoard of 70 coins by an expert after being taken to an auction house in Wiltshire.

The collection had been gathered by Oxford student Mark Hillary, who died aged 20 in 1963 in a climbing accident.
 
The rare 200-year-old coin which sold for £225,700 was hidden in a matchbox for 50 years

The bulk of his collection was sold at auction years ago, but the 70 leftover coins remained hidden at his former home for almost 50 years.

It was not until family members had an attic clear-out that the 18th century coin was discovered. The half cent bears a liberty head design on one side, with a pole and liberty cap in the background.

The reverse side of the copper coin, which is in mint condition, shows an open wreath of olive stems tied with a ribbon.

Heads or tails: The family of Mark Hillary were 'chuffed' at their luck in finding the 1796 coin in their attic


The auction saw huge interest from American bidders and the half cent sold to The Numismatic Financial Corporation in Florida which buys and sells rare coins.
The hammer price for the coin, that is one inch in diameter, was £185,000 but with additional fees included the overall price was £225,700.
Mr Hillary's family attended the sale and said they were 'very excited and chuffed to bits' with the outcome.


The coin was struck in pure copper at the Philadelphia Mint and designed by the mint's first chief engraver Robert Scott.

.Daniel Fearon, a coin consultant at Salisbury-based Woolley and Wallis auctioneers, said: 'It is a wonderful result and a satisfying ending to an amazing find.
'It was very exciting when it was brought in to us. It is an instantly recognisable and beautiful coin. I'm so pleased to have found it.
'The condition of the coin is unchanged with a good even brown colour and some traces of redness around the obverse letters and around wreath on the reverse.
'The coin is one of just a handful that have survived in this condition. Half cents have always been a rarity in the collectors' market.
'Britain is just the place where you could expect to find one. The best specimens of American coins have surfaced over the years in British collections.
'There was no local collecting market in America in those early days but in Britain the 1790's was a time when copper coinage and copper trade tokens were widely collected.
'It is the natural place for coins of the former colony to end up.'
Mr Hillary was a classical scholar who attended both Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford.
He was on his way to achieving a first class degree in classical greats when he died in a climbing accident in Greece.
He had collected coins since childhood and his passion often took him to the London coin dealers Spink's and Seaby's.
Half cent coins were never popular and mintage was often low because priority was given to the new gold and silver coins.

[barny]

that was a great story

[Dryland]

 what a find , great story, lovely coin and I even like the
matchbox storage

[WeCan-Octavian]

You just don't know what's hidden away !

[galoshers]

pal of mine found 2 early aussie coins in mint condition in a
charity shop for which he paid pennies.
put them on the bay and made around 4000 pounds.for the two