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A British family uncovered a treasure trove in their own backyard — and now it’s going under the hammer for a whopping six-figure sum.
The lot is being sold by coin dealer David Guest Numismatics. It will be auctioned in Zurich, Switzerland, on Nov. 5., and is expected to fetch more than £230,000, or roughly $308,000 U.S. dollars.
Coin specialist David Guest told Fox News Digital the hoard was found by a Hampshire couple in Milford on Sea in April 2020.
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The couple was adjusting a fence next to one of their backyard flower beds when the husband spotted a lump of “clayey soil,” Guest said.
“In total, they recovered 64 coins,” he added. “A further six coins were found by archaeologists in Oct. 2021.”
At first, the soil appeared to contain thin metal discs. But when the couple’s teenage son washed the lump of material under the garden tap, the family realized there were gold coins present.
The numismatist said the hoard was buried in the late 1530s, when its value was 26 pounds, 5 shillings and 5-1/2 pence.
“I am very confident that the total price realized will be significantly more than the pre-sale estimate.”
“This was a considerable amount of money at the time,” noted Guest. “It has been calculated that in rural England in the 1530s, the average property price was £25.”
He added the hoard was likely buried due to political instability in England during the Reformation.
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“While we will never know why and by whom the hoard was buried, it was almost certainly concealed during the tumultuous first phase of the English Reformation when Henry VIII was dissolving England’s ancient monasteries and appropriating much of the wealth of the Catholic Church,” Guest said.
The coins were all struck between the 1420s and 1530s. Many of the coins bear the images of the four English kings between 1422 and 1547: Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII.
“Four kings, two queens (Katherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour) and one cardinal are named on coins in the hoard,” said Guest.
The coin dealer said the excellent condition of the coins contributes to the hoard’s high selling point – and he believes it will sell for even more than the expected price.
“[The hoard] is also remarkable for the very high state of preservation of the majority of the coins,” he said. “This makes them very attractive to the current market.”
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Guest added, “I am very confident that the total price realized will be significantly more than the pre-sale estimate.”
The hoard is one of many exceptional coin-related discoveries found in the U.K. in recent years.
In 2023, a plumber found a cache of ancient coins in a field in Leicestershire and auctioned them off in 2025.
Earlier this year, officials announced the discovery of the equivalent of a Roman soldier’s paycheck in Norfolk – 25 silver denarii.
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