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QUEEN ANNE 'VIGO' GOLD FIVE GUINEA FOUND
My grandfather gave me a box of old coins, too, but it didn't have one of these in it. Here's a great story of a rare coin that went unnoticed for decades.
-Editor
The Queen Anne 'Vigo' five guinea gold coin will be put up for sale at Boningtons Epping saleroom on Wednesday, November 16. The auctioneers, who also have a valuation office in Chelmsford, have put an eye-watering estimate of between £200,000 and £250,000 on the find. The coin is one of only twenty made from the 7.5lbs of gold seized from Spanish treasure ships by the British in Vigo Bay, northern Spain, on October 23, 1702 – exactly 314 years ago. Essex auctioneers to sell rare coin worth up to £250,000 which was found in child's toy box One of Britain's rarest coins will go under the hammer at an Essex auction house next month after being discovered in a little boy's toy box. The Queen Anne 'Vigo' five guinea gold coin will be put up for sale at Boningtons Epping saleroom on Wednesday, November 16. The auctioneers, who also have a valuation office in Chelmsford, have put an eye-watering estimate of between £200,000 and £250,000 on the find.
The coin is one of only twenty made from the 7.5lbs of gold seized from Spanish treasure ships by the British in Vigo Bay, northern Spain, on October 23, 1702 – exactly 314 years ago. A man from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, who cannot be named, has passed the coin to Boningtons for sale, after being given it by his grandfather years ago. He had no idea of its value, however, until he showed it to Boningtons' coin specialist, Gregory Tong, who instantly recognised the rare coin, of which fewer than 15 examples are known. "My grandad had travelled all over the world during his working life and had collected many coins from the various countries he had been," the vendor said. "He gave me bags of coins to play with throughout my early years because I was into pirate treasure. "As time passed these coins went back into bags and boxes and were forgotten about until I re-discovered them after my grandad passed away. "I looked back through the coins, remembering the stories I made up about them when I was small, and then gave them to my own son to play with and put into his own treasure box. "My little boy has been playing with this coin as I did all those years ago." The series of 'Vigo' coins were made out of treasure captured by the British fleet after they failed to take Cadiz in 1702 but managed to seize gold and silver from Franco-Spanish treasure ships coming back from America. Struck the following year, the coins were made as part of an attempt to detract attention from the British failure at Cadiz. The treasure was delivered through London and received at the Royal Mint by the Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton.
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Dennis Tucker writes: I’m probably not the first E-Sylum reader to send you this story, and I probably shan’t be the last! As Dave Bowers points out in Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures, you never know where a rare coin will show up. In this case it was a British gold piece dating from 1703, found in a jumble of “pirate coins” an old traveler gave his grandson to play with.
Fewer than two dozen examples are known. A remarkable discovery! For more information. or to order a copy of Money of the World: Coins That Made History, see: Money of the World: Coins That Made History (www.whitman.com/store/Inventory/Detail/Money-of-the-World-Coins-That-Made-History) Dave Bowers adds: This is one of my favorite coins. Also the silver versions (which can be dated 1702 or 1703, unlike the 5-guinea)
David Pickup forwarded this article from The Sun, which includes a picture of the boy's treasure chest. Aarrrrgh!
-Editor
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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