A PENNY found in the county is tipped to fetch £1,500 at a London auction house today.
The 900-year-old coin made during the reign of William the Conqueror between 1066 and 1087 – shortly after the battle of Hastings – was found at Grafton Underwood last year and will go under the hammer at auctioneers Spink.
The auctioneers have confirmed the penny was found in Grafton Underwood last year, but exactly where and by who are a mystery.
Despite its age the coin is in what Spink describe as about very fine/good condition and it is particularly rare and valuable because it was made at the short-lived Nottingham Mint.
It was made there by a so-called moneyer. Moneyers were personally responsible for ensuring that the weight and the silver-fineness of the coins they produced were correct. If they got it wrong, they were severely punished.
Some were mutilated or executed as a penny was a fairly large sum of money at that time.
Robert Wharton, a co-ordiator at Wellingboorugh Museum was fascinated by the news said: “It just goes to show what can be found in the county.
“The important thing to realise here of course is that the person who found it handed it in so that historians can analyse it.
“We have people bring things into the museum all the time and we have a finds officer who helps collate the information.
“These finds can help us build a picture of the past.”
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