Rare coin sells for �19k at auction
A GOLD coin sold for nearly twice its maximum price estimate when the rare item featured in a sale yesterday in Ipswich.The coin was valued at between �5,000 and �10,000 for the Lockdales' 70th auction of coins and collectables at the Ipswich Orwell Holiday Inn, Ransomes Europark.
Richard Smith
A GOLD coin sold for nearly twice its maximum price estimate when the rare item featured in a sale yesterday in Ipswich.
The coin was valued at between �5,000 and �10,000 for the Lockdales' 70th auction of coins and collectables at the Ipswich Orwell Holiday Inn, Ransomes Europark.
There was telephone bidding between collectors from Belgium and America before the American bidder paid �19,300 for the coin.
More than 100 people attended the auction and a spokesman for Lockdales said it was a very important and extremely rare coin which sold within about a minute after bidding between two people.
The gold coin, called a Solidus, is approximately the size of a 20 pence piece, and it dates to around 830 to 850 AD.
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The coin turned up at Lockdales' Valuation Day in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, in November 2008.
It was brought in wrapped up with a few other coins, having been found amongst the personal possessions of a woman's deceased father who used to be a road worker in his younger days.
