Gold coin find brings $62,496

Extremely rare gold angel of Edward V located in a field last year which sold for $62,496. (Image courtesy DNW)

Rare British coins, both hammered and milled, have fetched some serious prices in recent months. Those prices showed no sign of slackening at Dix Noonan Webb’s March 15-16 sale.

It may not have been top seller, but considerable interest was shown in an extremely rare angel found in a Dorset field in August last. What finder Brian Biddle did not appreciate at first was he had uncovered a coin of the shortest-lived male monarch in English history: 12-year old Edward V – one of the infamous “Princes in the Tower” and one of four English monarchs never to have been crowned. Edward reigned for just 86 days in 1483.

The halved sun and rose mintmark plus an obverse legend that reads EDWARD DI GRA place the piece firmly with Edward V (S-2144A) rather than his father Edward IV.

With just a trace of a crease on the reverse it came graded “as otherwise very fine.” Once on the block it quickly raced past three times upper estimate to eventually realize $62,496 [£50,400].

Top price of the sale went to a William Wyon classic: a Una and the Lion proof £5 (KM-742, S-3851). Graded PR 63 DCAM and described “virtually as struck” it bid past double upper estimate to sell for $252,960 [£204,000].

Full auction details and prices-realized are available in the DNW archive at: www.dnw.co.uk.