Rare gold coin worth £250,000 found in toy treasure chest

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

A man has discovered that a gold coin given to him by his grandfather 30 years ago -- and which he kept in a toy treasure box -- is worth an estimated £250,000.

The man, a 35-year-old labourer, had given several coins to his four-year-old son to play with -- but then decided to get them valued.

A specialist then told him one was the Queen Anne 'Vigo' five guinea gold coin, one of Britain's rarest.

“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 man, who has remained unnamed, said.

“…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 them into his own treasure box,” he added.

The Queen Anne Vigo coin was one of 20 minted, and the whereabouts of only 15 are known to this day.

They were made from the treasures captured by a British fleet that failed to take Cadiz, a city in southwest Spain, in 1702. The fleet managed to seize gold and silver from Franco-Spanish treasure ships.

One of the Vigo coins was sold in 2012 for almost £300,000 and this coin is set to be auctioned by Boningtons fine art auctioneers in Essex next month.