stories we like so much,
a man from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, who cannot be
named, has passed the coin to Boningtons for sale, after being given it by his
grandfather years ago, He had no idea of its value, however, until he showed it
to Boningtons' coin specialist, Gregory Tong, who instantly recognised the rare
coin, of which fewer than 15 examples of the 'Vigo' coin are known, "My granddad had travelled
all over the world during his working life and had collected many coins from
the various countries he had been, He gave me bags
of coins to play with throughout my early years because I was into pirate
treasure, as time passed these coins went back into bags and boxes and were
forgotten about until I re-discovered them after my granddad passed away, I
looked back through the coins, remembering the stories I made up about them
when I was small, and then gave them to my own son to play with and put into his own treasure box"
the series of 'Vigo' coins were made out of treasure captured by the British fleet after they failed to take Cadiz in 1702 but managed to seize gold and silver from Franco-Spanish treasure ships coming back from America, struck the following year, the coins were made as part of an attempt to detract attention from the British failure at Cadiz, the treasure was delivered through London and received at the Royal Mint by the Master of the Mint, Sir Isaac Newton, the coin is only the sixth example of its type to be offered for sale in the last 50 years, making it one of Britain's rarest coins which will go under the
hammer at an auction house next month, the Queen Anne 'Vigo' five guinea gold coin will be put up for sale at Boningtons saleroom in Epping, Essex, on Wednesday, November 16. the
auctioneers have put an estimate of between £200,000 and £250,000 on the find, good luck or what!
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