Widow finds 62 gold coins in biscuit tin; collection sells for £113,000

A metal biscuit tin that had been forgotten in a garden shed near Penzance, Cornwall, has sold for £113,000 at auction. The tin contained 62 gold coins that had been collected and stored away around 50 years ago. The unexpected discovery happened when a widow began clearing out the buildings belonging to her late husband. She took the dusty tin to Lay’s Auctioneers to find out what was inside.Uncovering a hidden fortune in PenzanceThe shed clearance seemed like an ordinary task until the tin was brought to staff at Lay's Auctioneers in Cornwall. At first, the container appeared to hold everyday household items, along with a few loose silver coins on top. However, when auction experts looked more closely, they found dozens of gold coins hidden beneath the other items. Many of them were still inside their original mint packaging.The collection included 41 South African Krugerrand gold coins and 21 British gold sovereigns. Speaking to The Independent, a representative from the auction house described the surprise of finding the coins. "I plonked it down and looked inside and saw silver coins," the spokesman said. "It was just astonishing. We have had discoveries before but all that gold was just remarkable".A mid-1970s investment left forgottenThe late owner had quietly bought the gold coins in 1975, during a period of economic difficulties in the United Kingdom. He paid between £70 and £80 for each coin. However, he never told his family about the investment. Instead, he placed the coins in the shed, where they remained untouched for around 50 years. "Our client didn't know that her husband had just gone and spent a few thousand pounds on this gold investment and stashed it away and didn't tell her," a representative for Nationwide Coins said in a review of the sale.When the coins were bought in 1975, gold was worth much less than it is today. Over the next 50 years, gold prices increased sharply around the world. This turned what had started as a small investment into a valuable collection worth a large amount of money. "The price of gold is astronomical at the moment so it was an amazing investment by this man," a spokesperson for Lay's Auctioneers told The Independent. "What a shrewd chap her husband was".Competitive bidding drives total past estimatesLay's Auctioneers prepared the collection for sale and attracted interest from coin collectors and gold investors across the UK. With gold prices already high, buyers competed for the coins. Every lot from the biscuit tin collection was sold, taking the total auction price beyond £113,000. The money from the sale has now been handed to the widow. The discovery brought an end to a 50-year investment story that began with a quiet purchase of gold coins for just £70 in 1975.