Found in a Railway Dig: The £20,000 Gold Coin Given to Queen Victoria

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Good afternoon.

[00:00:01]One of the star lots in our coming auction on the 29th of May is this noble Edward the Third. Now, the reason it's so interesting is that it was found in 1887 in Newcastle while some workmen were digging the foundations for viaduct at Manor Station. Manor Station is just east of the center of Newcastle and they decided to widen the track, so they put in a viaduct in. And one of the workers found this coin, and the story goes that the foreman of the works thought it'd be a good idea to send it to Queen Victoria because this is a coin of Edward the Third who ruled for 50 years. And it just so happened the date that they found this coin was 1887, which was the 50th year anniversary of Victoria's reign. So, the story goes that they sent it to Victoria. She said, "Thank you very much." and sent it back in this very nice casket. And it was [music] on display at a shop that was owned by a colorist and a varnish maker. Now, the coin is a gold noble of Edward the Third. It was struck somewhere between 1361 >> [music] >> and 1369. It was struck in Calais, which at that time was still English territory and would be English territory for another 200 years. It's in [music] very good condition. It has been slabbed recently by PCGS and it has the grade of mint state 63, which is a very good grade. As I say, it's coming up for sale in our auction on the 29th of May. It's a very pretty coin. On the obverse, you have Edward in a ship. And the reason he's in a ship was that very recently we'd had the Battle of Sluys in 1340 where the French navy had been absolutely annihilated and Britain, or England specifically, Um, suddenly realized it was a sea power. And that is why Edward is portrayed in this very pivotal uh, medieval bite. On the other side, there's a very typical medieval cross cross flory, very intricate, archetypically medieval, with a little C in the middle which stands for Calais.

[00:02:15]Very good condition, and it has this this royal connection with Victoria, and it also has a local connection with Newcastle-on-Tyne, which is where it was found. Very pretty coin, and it should go for between 15 to 20,000 pounds.