A British couple could have netted themselves more than £35,000 after they found 1,000 rare 400-year-old coins under the floorboards of their home during renovation work.
Betty and Robert Fooks were removing the concrete floor of their Dorset home when they stumbled upon the 17th-century change in a smashed glazed pottery bowl.
The pair reported it to the local finds liaison officer and it was sent to the British Museum for cleaning and identification, where the coins, known as the Poorton hoard were found to be legitimate and worth about £35,000.
They will now go to auction at Duke’s Auctioneers in Dorchester, Dorset.
The hoard contains James I and Charles I gold coins, silver half crowns, shillings and sixpences, as well as Elizabeth I and Philip and Mary silver shillings and sixpences.
Betty Fooks, an NHS health visitor, told the Guardian: “It is a 400-year-old house so there was lots of work to do. We were taking all the floors and ceilings out and took it back to its stone walls. We decided to lower the ground floor to give us more ceiling height.
“One evening, I was with the children and my husband was digging with a pick axe when he called to say they’ve found something. He put all the coins in a bucket. If we hadn’t lowered the floor, they would still be hidden there. I presume the person intended to retrieve them but never got the chance.”
The couple carried out the work in order to give their downstairs floor greater height and now could be set to make a fortune.
Julian Smith, specialist at Duke’s auctioneers, told the Guardian: “The cottage is situated in a small hamlet in west Dorset, and is a 17th-century long-house. The property was purchased by the current owners in 2019 and they started an extensive renovation project.
“The modern concrete floor was removed and the floor dug down by nearly 2ft to prove greater height to the downstairs of the property. In some areas there were old flagstones under the concrete but the area the coins were found was bare earth.
“The coins have been with the British Museum for identification and cleaning, and they feel the coins were deposited on one occasion.”
The coins will go under the hammer on Tuesday, April 23.
