Widow Discovers Late Husband Had a Hidden Coin Collection Worth Thousands

A stunned widow discovered a huge, hidden collection of historic coins in her home following the death of her husband—and the haul has now sold for more than $31,000 at auction.

The wife and her daughter—who live in the town of Luton, England, which is north of London—found more than 1,000 coins and medals in various locations around the house. Some of them date back centuries.

The coins belonged to the husband and father, a businessman and passionate collector who died last fall. He hid most of the coins in shoeboxes at the bottom of a wardrobe in the home. But that was not the only place they were stashed away.

"I found most of the coins a couple of months ago, but more turned up over the course of the next few weeks. I kept finding more every time I cleared another part of the house," the mother said in a statement to local auction firm Hanson Ross.

"They were in drawers and cupboards or wrapped up among other things. Most were in a wardrobe, but I found a lot more locked away in my husband's old office desk," she said.

The woman also said she knew her husband was an avid collector but was unaware of the number of coins hidden around the home.

"I had no idea he had so many, and, to be honest, I think he'd forgotten about some of them," she said. "He started collecting in the mid-1970s, and his hobby carried on for more than 40 years. It was just something he liked to do."

Amanda West-Butler, the director of operations for Hanson Ross, who assessed the collection, told Newsweek before the auction that the coins had a low-value estimate of £18,000 ($22,568).

But the total paid by buyers for the coins—which were divided into 140 different lots—at the auction held Friday eventually surpassed £25,000 ($31,153), significantly exceeding the low estimate.

Many of the coins in the collection were minted in Great Britain, including the oldest one—a William III crown dating back to 1696.

But the collection also contained coins from countries such as Portugal and Denmark, as well as the United States—including a number of American Morgan dollars from the 1870s to 1920s.

The "most valuable single coin" in the collection is an Edward VII 1902 gold £2 coin, which was estimated to be worth £500 to £700 ($627 to $877), West-Butler told Newsweek.

A four-album collection of 100 hallmarked sterling silver medals, titled "The Mountbatten Medallic History of Great Britain and the Sea," was the most valuable single lot, with an estimated value of £1,500 to £2,000 ($1,879 to $2,505).

Some of the coins are quite rare, West-Butler said, including an "interesting collection" of bronze medals titled "The Medallic History of the Jewish people," from 1974.

"We don't think that there has been any sold at auction since the 1980s," West-Butler said. "We have some interesting wreath crowns which not many people know about and tend to go under the radar. But they had a limited run so are quite rare. There's also an 1834 half crown which is in great condition and that makes it quite rare."

The family decided to sell the collection because it is trying to declutter the house. They kept a few of the coins, however, for sentimental reasons, making some of them into jewelry.

After West-Butler had assessed all of the coins, the family was amazed to discover how much the coins could fetch at auction.

"It was an amazing discovery for me, too, because Hanson Ross has only just launched," West-Butler said in the statement. "It was my first routine home first and first major find. What a way to start! When I went to meet the family I couldn't believe how many coins they'd uncovered—and more coins keep turning up. It was like an unexpected treasure hunt."

"A collector's passion can never be underestimated, I suppose. This gentleman took great pleasure in sourcing and buying historical coins. Perhaps he didn't want to let on just how many he had, but now he's left a valuable gift for his family," she said.