A gold coin worth £250,000 (€280,814) was discovered in a child's pirate treasure collection.

The rare Queen Anne Vigo five guinea piece was given to the anonymous owner by his grandfather when he was a child and had no idea of it's value.

The rare 18th century coin was forgotten about until his granddad died, when he rediscovered the coin and gave it to his own son to play with.

Experts told the man it was was of 20 gold coins seized from Spanish treasure ships in Spain in 1702.

"My granddad travelled all over the world during his working life and collected many coins from the various countries he had been to. He gave me bags of coins to play with throughout my early years because I was into pirate treasure.

"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. My little boy has been playing with this coin as I did all those years ago," the man said.

Gregory Tong of Boningtons auctioneers, in Chelmsford, said the coin is expected to fetch up to £250,000 at auction next month and is only the sixth example of its type to be offered for sale in the last 50 years.

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