DETECTORIST FINDS RARE GOLD COIN
“Find a penny, pick it up, all day long, you’ll have good luck. Pass that penny to a friend; your penny luck will never end,” goes a well-known children’s rhyme. Armed with a metal detector, Michael Leigh-Mallory may want to argue that a found penny might offer a lot more than what a friend could do for you should you have given the penny to that friend.
In late September 2021 Leigh-Mallory found one of only eight known gold penny coins of Henry III using his metal detector. On Jan. 23 the coin was sold through an online auction conducted by Spink and Son auctioneer Gregory Edmund. Edmund reported the coin realized £540,000, which is about $728,700 U.S.
Leigh-Mallory is fortunate in more than one way. Under the Treasure Act of 1996 the finder can keep and sell an artifact such as this coin if it is determined the coin or artifact is not part of a larger trove. Many times the government takes possession of such finds, offering the finder a portion of the value realized once the object is sold to a British museum. Leigh-Mallory made the discovery in a farm field in Hemyock, Devon, which is about 150 miles southwest of London.
Leigh-Mallory said, “90 percent of my finds are trash, from ring pulls to miscellaneous pieces of iron and other rubbish.”
According to Leigh-Mallory, “The coin was four inches (10cm) deep in a ploughed field and I put the trowel in and found this glinting piece of gold. I knew it was gold and medieval, but I had no idea it was from Henry III (ruled 1247-1272).”
The obverse depicts a full-length figure of Henry crowned, robed, and enthroned. He holds a scepter in his right hand and orb in his left. The obverse legend reads HENRIC REX: I.I.I: The reverse features the long cross style introduced by Henry on his silver penny coinage of 1247. The pellets in each angle are smaller than as they appear on the silver pennies. There is a large rose between the pellet groups on the gold penny. The reverse legend reads WILLEM: ON LVNDEN,” a reference to the moneyer William of Gloucester who operated the mint at London.
According to Spink’s Coins of England and the United Kingdom, “In 1257, following the introduction of new gold coinages by the Italian cities of Brindisi (1232), Florence (1252), and Genoa (1253), Henry III issued a gold coinage in England. This was a gold ‘penny’ valued at 20 silver pence and twice the weight of the silver penny. The coinage was not a success, being undervalued, and it ceased to be minted after a few years; few coins have survived.” The coin is cataloged as No. 1376.
Henry’s gold penny is the first English hammered gold coin struck following the Norman conquest of England. In 1254 Henry’s accrued debts from foreign
