A rare British gold coin discovered in a boy's pretend treasure chest will auction next month.
The Queen Anne "Vigo" 5 guinea gold coin is expected to make up to £250,000 ($300,000) when it sells at Boningtons auction house in the UK on November 16.
 The consignor and his son played with the gold coin (bottom right) for years |
The coin was used as pretend pirate treasure by successive generations of the same family, with no one aware of the value of the golden beauty. It was only when the consignor took a handful of coins to Boningtons that he became aware of its potential worth.
The consignor picks up the story. "My granddad travelled all over the world during his working life and collected many coins from the various countries where he had been," he said.
"As a boy, I was into pirate treasure, so he gave me bags of coins to play with. As time passed, these coins went back into bags and boxes and were forgotten about.
"Then, after my granddad passed away, I rediscovered the coins and recalled how much I had enjoyed them as a boy. So I gave them to my own son to play with, including the Queen Anne Vigo 5-guinea. He kept it in his treasure box and has been playing 'pirate' with it just as I did, all those years ago."
The coin was one of 20 melted down from 7.5 pounds of gold captured from the Spanish in Vigo Bay, Spain in 1702. Just 15 are thought to exist today, and only five have appeared for auction in the past half century.
Last year, divers in Madagascar found what they believe is part of pirate Captain Kidd's legendary treasure. The prize piece was a 50kg silver bar that was on board the Adventure Galley - one of Kidd's ships - when it sank in 1698.
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