The lucky couple found a “huge” treasure of 264 gold coins valued at up to 20 billion under the floor of their house.
While treasure hunters can spend decades finding valuable antiques, an anonymous couple was extremely lucky when they accidentally discovered a terracotta cup filled with gold coins while renovating your house. It is known that the couple’s house is located in an isolated plot of land from the 18th century in the village of Ellerby, North Yorkshire, England.
Even though they had lived in this house for more than 10 years, the couple was still surprised because at first they thought it was just a part of an electric cable buried under the floor to keep the house tidy.
But when it was completely opened, the couple was extremely surprised to find a treasure trove filled with gold coins from the 17th and 18th centuries, which were of great value in their time.
The couple contacted London auction house Spink & Son, after which an expert visited to evaluate the coins. According to experts, the coins unearthed in the soil beneath the East Yorkshire estate date from 1610 to 1727, belonging to a merchant family, who traded across the Baltic region. Specifically, the house in Ellerby, East Yorkshire, where the unnamed couple lived was once the residence of a merchant family called the Fernley-Maisters.
The Maister family were importers and exporters of iron ore, timber and coal and later generations served as Whigs politicians and members of Parliament in the early 1700s.
The above amount was accumulated during the lifetime of Joseph Fernley and his wife Sarah Maister. Fernley died in 1725 and his widow remained at Ellerby until her death at the age of 80 in 1745.
The couple discovered these coins in July 2019. To date, the coins can be auctioned.
According to British law, if these coins are over 300 years old, they will be classified as objects of archaeological value and owned by the country. However, the gold coins the couple found were less than 300 years old, meaning they had full ownership of the treasure.
According to auction house Spink & Son, the most valuable item in the treasure the couple found was a coin produced in 1720, which had a mint error. The coin does not feature the king, but instead has two tails and is priced at approximately $69,151.
It is known that there were a total of 264 gold coins, placed in a cup carefully hidden under the wooden floorboards. At first, the auction house estimated the block of coins would bring about 277,000 USD, however, the actual amount received exceeded expectations. At the end of the auction, the couple earned $825,535
