Rare coin from 400 years ago sells for eye-watering £3,000 at auction

04 October 2023 , 14:28

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The rare coin fetched £3,000 (Image: Noonans)

A 400-year-old coin has recently been sold at auction and brought the seller in a whopping £3,000.

The coin was a "Pontefract Shilling" according to the auctioneer Noonans Mayfield and is from the 17th century. The coin depicts an illustration of Pontefract Castle in West Yorkshire which was destroyed during the English Civil War. One side of the shilling gives the date 1648 and the initials PC over the castle on the other.

The coin was minted during King Charles I's reign as he and his followers battled against Oliver Cromwell and his Parliamentarians. The castle was one of the largest in Britain and was used as a base for the King as he built up his armies in Scotland.

The castle remained Royalist until the war was won by the Parliamentarians. Charles I was executed in January 1649, and the castle was destroyed at the end of March that year.

The coin went to auction on October 3 in Mayfair and originally it was expected to sell at around £2,000. However, it actually went for much more than anticipated at £3,000.

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The coin was part of the Late Roy Ince collection of British Coins. According to the Noonan's auction catalogue, Roy was born in 1942 and started collecting coins at 10 years old. Roy eventually became interested in older English coins and grew his collection from there. Roy died in July of this year.

There were 400 coins in the collection that were being sold this week with the cheapest coins fetching £40 each and the most expensive hitting the £3,000 mark. A shilling minted ten years after this one, carrying the head of Roundhead leader Cromwell, sold for £2,400 at the same sale.

Earlier this year, another coin collector sold their collection for a whopping £2million. Robert Puddester accumulated a collection of 1,246 old coins relating to the British East India Company over the course of 45 years.

The East India Company was a British trade company which became one of the largest and most powerful monopolies in the world for nearly two hundred years.

Robert also sold his collection with Noonans Mayfair and his top selling lots were a Bombay half-mohur from 1765 which sold for £117,800 and a 1765 Bombay gold mohur which sold for £99,200.

Ruby Flanagan