This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

John Rolfe had no expectations of finding anything valuable when he arrived at a ramshackle two-up, two-down cottage tucked away in a remote West Country valley.

But as the auctioneer began to explore by the light of his mobile phone torch the glint of gold caught his eye. Rolfe began to turn out drawers and cupboards and found them full of valuable coins.

“It was mind-blowing. I felt like a pirate in a grotto,” he said. “There was a coin here, a coin there. If I opened a drawer there were more coins.” He even found a coin among sugar cubes in a bowl.

The coins were removed from the cottage near Stroud, in Gloucestershire. Most were commemorative and specimen coins in mint condition and sold for a total of £80,000 at Wotton Auction Rooms.

The precise location of the find and the identity of the hoarder, who died some months ago, is not being disclosed on the request of his family. It is understood he is is a former City of London worker who retired to his remote, damp, rat-infested bolthole, where he lived alone.

He clearly had an eye for gold and kept the coins in excellent condition, most in their original plastic and with the receipts.

The most valuable lot was No 210, a 1937 specimen coin set comprising a £5 coin and sovereigns in a Morocco leather case, which sold for £8,000.

There were also coins commemorating royal occasions and historical events and figures, celebrating great artists and marking sporting events.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A set of gold coins minted for the Queen’s jubilee in 2002. Photograph: Wotton Auction Rooms

A set of gold coins minted for the Queen’s jubilee in 2002 (with box and paperwork) sold for £5,000. Someone paid £3,400 for a set of Channel Islands gold coins produced to mark the 150th anniversary of the Duke of Wellington’s death.

Rolfe explained that he got to know about the cottage from the solicitors for the family of the deceased.

“When you get a call like that and hear about coins you think it’s going to be a few coppers and maybe a Georgian halfpenny. If you’re lucky you’ll find £20- or £30-worth. I thought it was going to be as dull as dishwater.”

Rolfe drove out to the cottage on a rainy day. “There was flooding and the van only just made it there. It had steam coming out of the bonnet.,” he said.

“The cottage was in the middle of nowhere. To say the place was ramshackle doesn’t quite cover it. It was damp, rat-infested. There was an old car on the drive that looked as if it had never been moved.

“The gentleman was a hoarder. We go into an lot of properties but I’ve never seen anything like it. You could barely get through the front door. We couldn’t turn the lights on. There were boxes and boxes of paperwork floor to ceiling in every room.”

But then he saw the glinting.

“Almost every coin was in mint condition still stored in its original plastic with its receipt. I got a team down to clear the property. That was no mean feat. A normal house clearance will take a day or two. This took three weeks of four men every day.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Channel Islands gold coins marking the 150th anniversary of the Duke of Wellington’s death. Photograph: Wotton Auction Rooms

Rolfe said the collector clearly had a penchant for gold – and for keeping his coins pristine while the rest of the cottage crumbled.

The auction at Wotton-under-Edge was packed and attracted bids from across the world. The hoard fetched about double the estimated price and every lot was sold.

Rolfe said: “I’ve spent my whole life pricing up house clearances. I’ve never done anything like it. I may never see anything like it again.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The George Medal awarded Ronnie Russell after he helped stop Princess Anne being kidnapped in 1974. Photograph: Dix Noonan Webb/PA

Knockout medal with royal pedigree to be sold

The George Medal awarded to one of the civilians who thwarted the attempted armed kidnap of Princess Anne is to go under the hammer.

Ronnie Russell, a former heavyweight boxer, punched Ian Ball twice in the head as he tried to kidnap the princess at gunpoint in central London in March 1974.

For his bravery he was awarded the George Medal by the Queen, who told him: “The medal is from the Queen, but I want to thank you as Anne’s mother.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ronnie Russell, a former heavyweight boxer, pictured in 1974. Photograph: PA

Russell, now 72 and living in Bristol, is reluctantly selling the medal as he is in poor health having suffered several strokes, and wants to be able to provide for his future.

“It was something I said I would never, ever do. I am so proud and honoured to have done such a thing and be involved in it that I would never, ever sell it,” he said.































