A 1,000-year-old gold Jesus coin bought in 1992 for £450 is being auctioned in London for £54,000
- The extremely rare ‘Royal d’or’ coin was one of six recovered from Normandy in 1861
- It was sold at auction house Spink & Son in London for a whopping £54,000
- It was bought from a private seller in 1992 for £450, which is £1,000 today
A 1,000-year-old gold coin commemorating Jesus Christ’s ‘crown of thorns’ bought in 1992 for £420 has fetched £54,000 at auction.
The extremely rare ‘Royal d’or’ coin was one of six found from a hoard found during the 1861 town replanning of Deauville in Normandy, France.
The set of coins was a gift from the Emperor of Constantinople to King Louis IX. of France in 1239.
The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris acquired one of the finds in 1862. The rest were sold by coin dealers to private collectors throughout Europe.
The coin, which was sold at auction house Spink & Son in London, was acquired by the seller in 1992 when they paid a paltry £450 for it, which is £1,000 today.
It sold for a hammer price of £47,000. With additional fees, the total price for it was £54,000.
The extremely rare ‘Royal d’or’ coin (pictured) was one of six found from a hoard found during the 1861 town replanning of Deauville in Normandy, France
Gregory Edmund, auctioneer and world coin specialist at Spink, said: “It is very rare that a coin captures and reflects such a defining event in world history, let alone being so closely linked to the symbolism of Christ’s crucifixion.
“The excellent award demonstrates the global interest in coin collecting, which has boomed since the pandemic and recent fluctuations in the value of the pound.”
Until April 2019, the “Crown of Thorns” was on display at Notre Dame Cathedral.
After the devastating fire, it was placed back in the Louvre.
It comes after a happy couple who discovered a staggering trove of 264 gold coins from the reign of King James I under their kitchen floor sold them at auction earlier this month for nearly £755,000 – triple their original estimate.
An unnamed couple made an amazing find of 264 gold coins when they had a new floor installed in their 18th-century family home in the village of Ellerby, North Yorkshire, it was reported earlier this month
The auction included this “model bust” with laurels of James I
The location of the couple’s house in July 2019
The unnamed couple made the amazing find three years ago when they had new flooring installed in their 18th-century family home in the village of Ellerby, North Yorkshire, just six inches below the concrete.
The gold coins – some of which are more than 400 years old and date back to 1610, while others date back to 1727, meaning they cover the reigns of James I, the executed Charles I and King George I – have been preserved for around three centuries, a salt-glazed earthenware cup.
They had been collected by Joseph Fernley and his wife Sarah Maister, members of a wealthy and influential family of Hull merchants who traded in iron ore, timber and coal, and whose later generations were Whig politicians and MPs.
An expert from London auction house Spink & Son visited the property to appraise the treasure – and this year the coins sold for a staggering £754,320.
One of the highlights of the sale – a 1720 George I guinea, mistakenly struck without a king’s head, instead with two ‘tail’ sides of the coin – fetched £9,600, while a 1675 Charles II guinea, which is misspelled the King’s Latin name CRAOLVS instead of CAROLVS was also sold for £9,600.
Auctioneer Gregory Edmund described the find as “one of the greatest archaeological finds from Britain”.