That’s one heck of a piggybank find!
When we were young, we dreamed of finding what’s underneath the “x”. We’d spend afternoons digging in the wilderness, not really having an idea how treasure hunts work.
But for a couple, that treasure hunt came in easy. And with a renovation and their luck, they uncovered a medieval piggy bank that holds hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A couple was renovating their home when they stumbled upon an artifact.
The home, located in Ellerby, North Yorkshire, wasn’t specified to be an old house but it contained a secret just waiting to be discovered.
After 400 years, they unearthed a “salt glazed mud cup”. It was buried under the floorboards and a layer of concrete.
The “piggybank” was the size of a soda can.
When they opened the container, they couldn’t believe what was inside. It contained gold, but not just any kind of gold.
The hoard contained 260 gold coins that were believed to have been in circulation around the 1700s. In today’s money, the coins have a purchasing power of around $116,000.
But considering their historical value, the price can still spike.
The coins can actually fetch a whopping $290,000 price tag. An auctioneer from the historical Spink and Son said that it was truly a serendipitous find.
“It is a wonderful and truly unexpected discovery from so unassuming a find location,” Gregory Edmund from the auction house said in the press release.
He also said that the 260-piece find is one of the largest on the archaeological record and was much more special given the era where the coins belonged.
They suspected that the coins belonged to a certain couple.
“The coins almost certainly belonged to the Fernley-Maisters, Joseph and Sarah who married in 1694,” said the auction house in a press release they submitted to news outlets.
The auction house further elaborated on the history by sharing the information they have about the couple. They said they belonged to an “influential mercantile family” from the 16th to 18th century.
Their business holdings included mining goods such as coal and iron ore, and also included timber. Then, some of their descendants took up government positions around the 1700s.
The auction house said that the hoard was kept because of the newly-formed Bank of England.
Opened in 1694, the Bank of England issued paper bank notes by the 1700s. The couple must’ve distrusted the new system and kept the coins just in case.
The gold coins contained English coins and a coin from Brazil. The auction house also said that this find can benefit future generations for its sheer cultural and historical value.
Despite knowing who hid the stash under the floors, they never really got to know why the couple never unearthed the coins. They may have left in hurry, forgotten where they kept it or perished before having the chance to recover it.
400 years later, the hoard can once again see the light. No matter the case, we can really say that “x” marks that house in England.
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